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THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 


A    BOY'S    MINE 


THE     GOLDEN     CHIMNEY 


A    BOY'S  MINE 


BY 


ELIZABETH    GERBERDING 

A, 


A.    M.    ROBERTSON 

SAN    FRANCISCO 

1902 


COPYRIGHT  1901 

BY 
A.  M.  ROBERTSON 


fht  Murdoch  Press 
San   Francisco 


Bancroft  Ubwiy 


O 
* 


TO  MT  BOTS 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

I.  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  MINE     ...  9 

II.     THE  PURCHASE 31 

III.  THE  SMUGGLERS'    CACHE   is   FOUND  52 

IV.  FUNDS  FOR  THE  ENTERPRISE       .      .  64 
V.  BEN'S  PARTNER  PROVES  A  TRUMP  .  72 

VI.  THE  MULE  AUCTION      ....  78 

VII.  BUILDING  THE  ARASTRA  ....  93 

VIII.  GOLD  IN  THE  " JIGGER"      .      .      .  in 

IX.  THE  MYSTERIOUS  CHINESE  .      .      .  123 

X.     WORK  STOPPED 136 

XI.     A  MIDNIGHT  FIGHT 156 

XII.     IN  THE  SICKROOM 166 

XIII.  THE  OPIUM  RAID 180 

XIV.  A  CRIME  DISCOVERED     .      .     .      .  190 
XV.  BEN  CHOOSES  A  PROFESSION  200 


LIST    OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 
"The  Golden  Chimney"  .      .      .       Frontispiece 

Pacing  Page 

"Our  Boy  Miner "   .      .      .      .      .      .      .      136 

"As  Ben    approached    he    saw  Ng  Quong 

leaning  against  the  iron  balustrade"   .      182 

"  '  Rockin'  on  the  beach  of  San  Francisco 
and  makin'  our  two  and  three  hundred 
a  day/  said  Mundon"  .  .  .  .  206 


THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 
CHAPTER  I 

DISCOVERY    OF    THE    MINE 

BEN  RALSTON  and  his  cousin  Beth 
were  sitting  on  the  northern  slope 
of  Russian  Hill,  one  of  the  many  hills  of 
San  Francisco.  At  the  foot  of  the  eleva- 
tion the  black  buildings  and  smokeless 
chimney  of  an  abandoned  smelting- 
works  rose  from  the  beach  which  skirted 
the  hill.  Beyond,  the  blue  bay  sparkled 
in  the  sunlight,  except  where  fleeting 
cloud-shadows  raced  across  its  surface. 

"  I  was  born  just  about  forty  years 
too  late,"  the  boy  remarked  with  em- 
phasis. 

"  But  the  city 's  a  big  place,  and 
it 's  getting  bigger  and  bigger, —  I 
heard  a  man  say  so  to-day." 


io          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  I  know  all  that,  Beth ;  and  the 
reason  is,  there  are  more  people  coming 
all  the  time.  Every  one  who  comes 
lessens  my  chances  to  get  on.  Forty 
years  ago  there  were  n't  many  folks 
here,  but  there  were  a  heap  of  chances." 

"  I  had  a  feeling  when  I  came  up 
here  to-day  that  you  were  n't  going  to 
take  that  place  in  Stratton's  store." 

"  What  made  you  think  so  ?" 

"  O,  I  just  guessed  so  from  the 
way  you  talked.  You  always  talk  that 
way  when  you  're  blue."  She  buried 
one  of  her  hands  in  the  shining  sand 
on  which  it  rested. 

"  Think," —  he  pointed  to  the  huge 
chimney  at  the  foot  of  the  hill, — "  think 
of  the  gold  the  fire  of  that  chimney  has 
melted !  And  then  expect  me  to  be 
an  errand  boy  at  three  dollars  a  week, 
with  a  chance  of  a  raise  to  four  in  six 
months  !  I  tell  you,  Beth,  I  can't  do 
it.  I  'm  not  that  kind.  I  'd  get  so 
wild  thinking  of  it  all.  If  it  were  some- 


DISCOVERY   OF   THE   MINE        n 

thing  more  to  do,  or  something  where 
I  could  get  ahead  quicker,  I  wouldn't 
be  so  dead  set  against  it." 

"  Syd  would  like  the  place,  I  think, 
if  you're  positive  you'll  not  take  it." 

"  Well,  he  's  welcome  to  it.  Perhaps 
he 's  the  plodding  kind, —  though  I 
never  thought  he  was ;  but  I  Ve  got 
two  hundred  dollars,  and  it's  got  to 
help  me  to  something  better.'^ 

"  I  thought  you  said  it  was  three 
hundred  ? " 

"  So  it  was ;  but  some  more  bills 
turned  up  and  had  to  be  paid,  so  it's 
dwindled.  I  Ve  got  it  in  the  savings 
bank." 

The  girl  looked  at  the  massive  pillar 
which  reared  itself  before  them. 

"  I  should  think  some  of  the  gold 
would  have  stuck  to  the  chimney,"  she 
remarked. 

Her  companion  suddenly  grasped 
her  wrist. 

"  Beth  !  "    he    exclaimed.     His  eyes 


iz          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

glowed  with  excitement,  and  he  sprang 
to  his  feet  and  whirled  his  hat  around 
his  head  as  he  gave  a  cheer.  Then  he 
stood  quite  still  and  gazed  at  the  chim- 
ney. 

The  girl  looked  at  him  in  wonder. 
"  What  is  it  ?  "  she  asked. 

"  I  don't  know  myself —  exactly. 
Maybe,  it 's  nothing,  and  maybe, — 
you  Ve  found  my  fortune." 

"  I  ? " 

"  Yes,  you." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ?  " 

"  Why,  goosey,  don't  you  see  it  yet  r 
To  buy  the  right  to  mine  the  soot  for 
gold,  the  gold  of  the  early  days.  Some- 
how, I  Ve  always  felt  that  that  would 
be  the  stuff  to  put  me  on  my  feet, — 
and  here  it  is.  Maybe,  I  Ve  been  mis- 
taken,—  maybe,  I  was  n't  born  too  late, 
after  all." 

"  Mine  the  soot !     How  can  you  ? ' 

"  Why  not  ?  I  Ve  heard  of  its 
having  been  done."  His  face  shone 


DISCOVERY    OF   THE    MINE        13 

with  hope.  "  No  one  's  ever  thought 
of  this  !  "  he  exclaimed.  "  Don't  you 
see  it 's  a  big  thing  ?  "  he  questioned,  as 
she  did  not  speak. 

"  If  you  can  only  do  it.  Will  old 
Madge  give  you  leave  ?  " 

"He  will  if  I  pay  him  for  it.  He  'd 
give  me  the  right,  too,  to  tear  down  the 
old  sheds ;  and  of  course  there  's  gold 
under  the  crazy  ramshackle  things. 
They  had  so  much  of  it  in  the  early 
days  that  they  were  n't  any  too  careful." 

"  Mr.  Madge  would  be  foolish  to  give 
you  the  right,  if  the  gold  is  there." 

"  He  is  sort  of  fool -crazy  over  his 
mines.  He  's  always  telling  every  one 
all  about  them,  how  rich  they  are  and 
all  that.  The  biggest  vein  ever  seen  is 
always  just  ahead.  He  would  n't  come 
down  to  mining  soot." 

"  But  would  n't  it  be  his  gold  if  you 
found  it  on  his  land  ?  " 

"  No,  't  would  n't.  Not  any  more 
his  than  mine.  The  Works  were  just 


i4          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

a  mill  to  crush  everybody's  ore ;  and 
what's  left  is  for  the  sweeper.  Be- 
sides, the  land  is  only  leased,  anyway, 
and  if  I  go  open-handed  and  buy  the 
right  to  sweep,  what  I  find  's  mine." 

"  I  should  think  that  some  of  it 
would  be  his,  too." 

"  I  don't  see  it  that  way.  A  girl 's 
always  got  such  cranky  ideas  of  busi- 
ness." 

"  Well,  we  won't  quarrel  about  it 
until  you  get  it.  Shall  you  put  in  all 
your  money?" 

"  Every  cent,  if  I  have  to.  I  'd  like 
mighty  well  to  have  some  left,  though, 
for  the  expense  of  working  the  thing." 

"  O,  Ben,  suppose  you  should  n't 
find  any  gold  ?  " 

"  That 's  the  chance  I  've  got  to 
take.  But  you  shall  have  anything 
you  want,  Beth." 

Her  face  flushed  as  she  saw  him 
glance  at  her  shabby  shoes  and  frock, 
and  she  tried  to  cover  her  feet  with  the 
hem  of  her  dress. 


DISCOVERY    OF   THE    MINE        15 

"  These  are  trifles/'  she  bravely  said, 
pointing  to  them  ;  "  but  what  I  should 
like  would  be  more  schooling." 

"  You  shall  go  to  school,  and  before 
I  get  any  gold  either.  I  know  a  way 
to  fix  it."  ' 

"  Don't  anger  Mr.  Hodges,  will  you, 
Ben  ?  "  She  turned  an  anxious  face 
toward  him. 

"  I  won't.  I  did  n't  tell  you  that  I 
found  a  note  of  his  for  ninety  dollars 
among  father's  papers." 

"  No.     You  don't  expect  to  get  it  ? " 

"  Of  course  not ;  but  I  can  hold  it 
over  his  head  for  nearly  two  years  yet." 

Her  face  brightened.  "And  make 
him  let  me  go  to  school  !  That  is  n't 
a  bad  scheme." 

"We  're  doing  great  things  in  schemes 
to-day.  Let's  go  through  the  old 
Works  !  "  He  seized  her  hand  and 
they  tore  down  the  hillside,  until  they 
stood,  out  of  breath,  before  the  nailed 
gates. 


1 6          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

Grim  and  gaunt  the  building  faced 
them.  Boards  were  nailed  over  the 
broken  windows,  and  there  were  gaping 
sags  in  the  roof. 

Ben  found  an  aperture  in  the  fence, 
and  they  squeezed  themselves  through 
it  into  the  yard. 

"Here,"  he  cried,  "is  where  they 
dumped  the  ore  !  Beth,  millions  have 
lain  were  we  are  standing  !  " 

She  did  not  appear  to  be  greatly 
impressed  by  this  dramatic  statement, 
and  nervously  glanced  about. 

"  I  should  think  tramps  would  sleep 
here." 

"  No  fear  of  that,"  he  replied  ;  "  it 's 
too  cold.  Come  inside  !  " 

She  followed  him  timorously,  feel- 
ing the  mystery  of  a  vacant  house,  the 
unseen  presence  of  former  occupants. 

"  See  ! "  Ben  eagerly  exclaimed, 
"  there  is  where  the  boilers  stood.  And 
there," —  he  pointed  to  where  some 
twisted  and  rusty  pipes  loosely  hung 


DISCOVERY    OF   THE    MINE        17 

against  the  wall,  like  petrified  serpents, 
— "  is  where  the  tanks  stood  in  which 
they  washed  the  gold.  They  washed 
it  before  melting  it  into  bricks.  Father 
has  told  me  how  the  men  used  to  stand 
knee-deep  in  it  in  the  tanks  and  shovel 
it  out,  just  as  if  they  were  shoveling 
coal." 

"  They  must  have  lost  a  lot." 

"  It  could  n't  be  helped.  And  no 
one  's  ever  worked  it  over  !  " 

"  What  was  that !  " 

"  Nothing  but  a  loose  shingle  in  the 
roof.  Why,  Beth,  I  did  n't  know  you 
were  such  a  coward." 

"  I  'm  not  a  coward  ;  but  I  don't  like 
spooky  places."  She  looked  appre- 
hensively toward  a  dark  corner. 

"  Spooky !  Well,  I  hope  some  old 
miner's  ghost  will  kindly  show  me 
where  to  dig,  that 's  all.  See  how  wide 
the  cracks  are  in  the  floor  of  this  shed," 
he  said,  as  he  looked  through  an  open- 
ing which  led  to  an  adjoining  building. 


1 8          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  There  are  thousands  of  dollars  in  the 
dirt  under  it  —  probably." 

They  peered  into  the  black  cracks 
and  could  almost  fancy  they  saw  the 
glitter  of  the  precious  metal.  The  boy 
threw  back  his  head  and  gazed  at  the 
massive  brickwork  of  the  chimney. 

"It's  a  chance,  of  course,  but  I'm 
going  to  take  it.  It 's  funny  to  think 
of  mining  for  gold  in  the  heart  of  San 
Francisco  in  1901  !"  He  laughed  and 
gave  a  low  whistle. 

"  I'm  so  afraid  you  '11  lose  all  you  Ve 
got,"  she  said.  Then  she  suddenly 
made  up  her  mind  to  side  with  him. 
"  But,  after  all,  there 's  a  risk  in  every- 
thing. I  'd  do  it,  if  I  were  you,  Ben," 
she  stoutly  affirmed.  "  There 's  lots  of 
risks  I  'd  take  if  I  were  a  man." 

"  That 's  got  some  grit  to  it,"  Ben 
approvingly  replied.  His  seventeen- 
year-old  vanity  was  flattered  by  being 
called  a  man. 

"  You  see,"   he  continued,  "  if  I  'd 


DISCOVERY   OF   THE    MINE        19 

been  taught  a  trade  it  would  be  different ; 
or  if  father  had  had  any  business  to 
leave  me.  But  he  was  just  like  old 
Madge, —  would  n't  do  anything  but 
trade  in  mines.  He  always  had  a  big 
fortune  just  in  sight,  but  it  never  came 
near  enough  to  catch." 

"  That 's  a  hard  way  to  live." 

"  Yes.  It  wore  mother  out ;  never 
to  know  from  month  to  month  whether 
we  were  going  to  stay  or  move  on,  or 
what  our  income  would  be.  I  believe 
all  old  miners  are  alike.  Once  a  miner, 
always  a  miner.  The  gold  fever  of 
early  times  bewitched  them  for  all  the 
rest  of  their  lives." 

"  Take  care  you  're  not  bewitched, 
too." 

"  It  Js  entirely  different  with  me,"  he 
began. 

"  No,  it  is  n't,"  she  interrupted.  "  But 
I  'm  with  you,  Ben.  O,  what  a  crazy 
scheme  it  is ! "  She  laughed  at  his 
troubled  face.  "  What  was  that  ?  It 
is  something  in  the  house  !  " 


20          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"It's  some  one  in  the  yard,"  Ben 
replied,  looking  out. 

A  man's  figure  appeared  in  the  door- 
way. 

"  Good-afternoon,  Mr.  Madge,"  Ben 
said.  "  We  are  viewing  your  property. 
With  a  floor,  this  would  make  a  first- 
rate  skating-rink." 

The  man  came  toward  them.  Of 
medium  stature,  with  a  halting  gait,  as 
though  his  joints  were  rusty,  he  helped 
himself  along  by  the  aid  of  a  stout 
hooked  cane.  A  sparse  gray  beard 
covered  the  lower  part  of  his  face,  which 
was  flushed  from  liquor.  He  looked 
uncomfortably  warm,  and  he  took  off 
his  shabby  broad-brimmed  hat  and  ran 
his  fingers  through  his  hair  until  it  stood 
erect  in  tufts. 

"  A  skating-rink !  Like  as  not 
'twould  come  down  about  your  heads. 
Run  home, girl,"  he  said  to  Beth;  "this 
is  no  place  for  you." 

"  We  were  just  going  when  you  came 


DISCOVERY    OF   THE    MINE        21 

in,"     Ben    replied,    before    she    could 
answer.     "  Good-night." 

"  Did  n't  you  want  to  talk  to  him 
about  the  scheme?"  she  asked,  when 
they  were  out  of  hearing. 

"  Not  when  he 's  in  that  condition. 
I  would  n't  take  advantage  of  him. 
Run  home,  now,  before  Mrs.  Hodges 
has  a  chance  to  scold." 

"She'll  scold,  anyway,"  the  girl 
replied.  Then  she  shrugged  her  shoul- 
ders as  if  to  dismiss  an  unpleasant 
subject,  and  her  face  brightened.  "  Race 
you  to  the  Point,  Ben ! "  she  cried, 
placing  one  foot  forward  for  the  start. 

He  did  not  respond,  but  gazed  at  her 
with  a  preoccupied  air. 

"  One,  two  !  "  Still  he  made  no  an- 
swer. Her  expectant  attitude  changed 
and  her  arms  fell  to  her  sides,  while  a 
look  of  disappointment  spread  over  her 
face.  "  I  think  it 's  just  horrid  if  you  're 
going  to  be  poky  and  grown-up  !  I 
don't  see  why  people  can't  work  and 


22          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

play  too ;  but  it  seems  they  never  do. 
Just  because  you  're  three  years  older 
than  me,  you  think  you  're  grown  up ! " 

"  Why,  Beth,  what 's  come  over 
you?" 

"  You  're  a  man  all  at  once  ;  that 's 
all.  I  s'pose  now  we  can't  have  any 
more  fun  with  stilts  and  tar-barrels. 
Nor  fly  kites,  nor  run  races,  nor — nor 
do  anything  we  used  to  do !  I  hate  the 
scheme, —  I  do!  " 

Ben  laughed.  "  Come  on,"  he  said  ; 
"  I  '11  race  you." 

Off  they  went,  flying  along  the  beach 
until  they  came  up,  breathless,  against 
the  wooded  slopes  of  Black  Point. 
They  climbed  up  the  bank  until  they 
reached  the  ramparts. 

"  That  was  fine  !  "  Beth  said,  seating 
herself  on  the  grassy  slope.  "  Now, 
you  can  tell  me  some  more  about  your 
plan.  I  don't  hate  it  any  more." 

Spread  before  them  was  the  bay, 
dotted  with  craft.  Across  the  channel 


DISCOVERY   OF   THE    MINE        23 

the  Marin  County  hills  rose  abruptly 
from  the  water's  edge.  At  Fort  Point, 
which  jutted  out  beyond  the  promon- 
tory on  which  they  were  sitting,  some 
experiments  in  a  new  explosive  were 
being  made.  They  watched  the  flash 
and  report  and  the  little  cloud  of  dust 
the  charge  made  when  it  struck  the  op- 
posite shore.  Above  them,  on  a  higher 
embankment,  a  sentry  paced  to  and  fro, 
his  bayonet  glistening  in  the  sunlight. 

"  So,  Dame  Trot  scolds  a  good  deal, 
does  she  ? "  Ben  remarked,  ignoring  the 
invitation  to  expatiate  on  the  scheme. 
"  I  must  stop  calling  her  that.  Her 
name  's  Mrs.  Hodges." 

"Yes,  she  does.  I  don't  think  she 
means  to,  though,"  she  added.  "  I 
think  she 's  been  disappointed  in  so 
many  things  that  it's  made  her  cross 
with  everything.  If  it  was  n't  for  poor 
little  Sue  I  could  n't  stand  it." 

"  Sue  would  miss  you — if  you  should 
go  away." 


24          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  I  know  she  would — terribly." 

"  You've  thought  of  going,  then?  " 

"  O,  sometimes  I  think  of  it ;  but 
when  Sue  turns  her  poor  little  face  and 
looks  at  me,  I  can't  bear  to  think  any 
more  about  it." 

"  Does  n't  she  look  so  at  her  mother, 
too?" 

"  Yes  ;  but  her  mother  always  seems 
to  want  to  get  her  out  of  her  sight. 
She  would  n't  hurt  her,  of  course  ;  but 
it  seems  as  if  she  held  a  grudge  against 
God  and  Sue  for  her  being  so  de- 
formed. Somehow,  she  acts  as  if  she 
held  both  of  them  responsible  for  the 
child's  misery." 

"  Most  mothers  would  be  more  ten- 
der to  such  a  child." 

"  I  know  it, — just  cuddle  it  up  in 
their  arms,  away  from  all  the  rest  of  the 
world  !  But  she  does  n't.  I  guess  it 's 
because  she 's  so  selfish.  She  wants 
everything  of  hers  to  be  the  best.  Of 
course  it  is  n't,  and  so  she 's  always 
complaining." 


DISCOVERY    OF   THE    MINE        25 

"  I  know.  And  I  say,  Beth,  do  you 
know  that  ill -humor's  catching?  I 
don't  like  to  hear  you  say  that  you 
<  hate '  things." 

"  You  know  I  don't  mean  it." 

"  Then,  don't  say  it.  But  how  are 
the  boys  ?  Are  they  good  to  Sue  ?  " 

"  O,  yes ;  how  could  they  help  it  ? 
Even  Hodges  is  different  to  her." 

"  How  's  Syd  ?  Somehow,  I've  got 
sort  of  turned  against  him  lately." 

"  He  's  just  the  same  old  Syd.  You 
say  you  've  turned  against  him  lately ; 
but  you  know,  Ben  Ralston,  that  you 
never  liked  him." 

Ben  laughed.  "  I  can't  fool  you, 
can  I,  Beth  ?  I  think  I  was  trying  to 
fool  myself  the  most.  Tell  me  about 
him." 

"  His  mother  favors  him  always,  and 
that  spoils  him.  He 's  envious  and 
suspicious,  always  imagining  that  some 
one 's  going  to  slight  him ;  and  she 
makes  this  silly  feeling  worse  by  en- 
couraging him  in  it." 


26          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  I  know  he  always  looks  sidewise  at 
me,  as  though  he  thought  I  meant  to 
trip  him  up,  or  eat  his  share  of  the 
treat,  or  get  the  best  of  him  somehow." 

"  Perhaps  you  'd  rather  I  would  n't 
tell  him  about  that  place  ? " 

"  Tell  him,  if  you  want  to ;  but  I 
don't  believe  you  '11  get  any  thanks  for 
it.  He  '11  think  it 's  some  sort  of  a  trap 
we  Ve  set  for  him." 

"  How  do  you  suppose  he  ever  got 
into  such  a  habit  ?  " 

"  Partly  disposition,  partly  habit. 
It's  a  habit  that  grows,  till  after  a 
while  he  will  not  trust  any  one.  But 
don't  let's  talk  of  him  when  we  can 
talk  about  the  scheme.  Beth,  if  it  pans 
out,  I  '11  always  think  you  were  my  fairy 
godmother." 

"  I  ?  Why,  I  have  n't  done  anything 
at  all!" 

"Yes,  you  have.  You  've  shown  me 
the  way,  just  like  the  fairy  godmother 
who  pointed  out  the  ring  in  the  tree- 


DISCOVERY    OF   THE    MINE        27 

trunk  to  Aladdin  and  told  him  to  pull 
and  a  door  would  open  that  would  lead 
down  to  the  treasure-house." 

"  That  was  n't  a  fairy  godmother ;  it 
was  a  magician,  an  old  Chinaman;  so  I 
don't  feel  complimented." 

Ben  did  not  reply.  He  was  busily 
planning  how  to  reach  his  treasure. 

"  I  '11  have  to  have  machinery  and 
things;  and  at  least  one  man  to  help 
me,  I  suppose,"  he  said.  "I  don't 
know,  exactly,  what  I  'd  better  do  first. 
But  I  can  find  out,"  he  added,  with  a 
rather  blank  look. 

A  few  minutes  before  he  had  exulted 
in  the  fact  that  he  was  his  own  master, 
to  negotiate  the  business  and  carry  it 
on  unaided ;  but  already  he  found  him- 
self wishing  for  some  friend  of  experi- 
ence with  whom  he  could  consult.  A 
few  of  the  difficulties  to  be  surmounted 
had  dawned  upon  him. 

"Why  not  ask  Hodges  about  it? " 

"I  don't  want  to  do  that  if  I   can 


28          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

help  it.  I  know  just  how  he  'd  sneer 
and  throw  cold  water  on  it  all." 

"  Could  n't  you  find  a  partner  ? '' 

"  I  'm  not  sure  that  I  want  to.  If  I 
let  others  into  it  I  'd  be  afraid  they  'd 
freeze  me  out.  Men  with  more  money 
than  he  had  did  that  to  father  lots  of 
times." 

"  O,  I  hope  you  won't  get  cheated, 
Ben ! "  She  clasped  her  hands  and 
looked  so  distressed  that  he  laughed. 

"  I  '11  be  too  many  for  them.  I  'd 
better  paddle  my  own  canoe,  though, 
and  then  there  won't  be  any  danger." 

"I  don't  see  why  there  need  be  any 
such  thing  as  cheating  in  the  world." 

"  1 1  's  a  queer  old  world.  Mother  used 
to  say  that  sometimes  she  thought  it  was 
the  lunatic  asylum  of  the  universe." 

"  I  should  think,  for  instance,  that  in 
case  you  work  over  the  old  Works  and 
get  out  the  gold,  everybody  would  be 
glad  that  you  'd  succeeded,  and  would 
go  on  with  their  own  work  and  earn 


DISCOVERY    OF   THE    MINE        29 

their  own  money,  without  wanting  to 
cheat  you  out  of  yours." 

"  I  know,  Beth,  that 's  the  fair  way 
to  look  at  it;  but  all  men  don't  feel 
that  way.  Those  that  don't  are  the 
ones  I  Ve  got  to  look  out  for." 

"When  men  are  so  selfish,  it  makes 
life  just  a  big  fight." 

"Yes,"  Ben  replied.  "And  'most 
every  man  is  fierce  to  down  every  other 
one.  It  's  just  like  a  big  school.  You 
despise  the  bullies  and  sneaks,  of  course, 
but  you  Ve  got  to  look  out  for  them. 
I  don't  mean  to  leave  a  crack  for  a 
rascal  to  get  the  better  of  me  in  this 
business.  I  'd  rather  make  forty  blun- 
ders myself  than  to  have  some  one  jam 
me  in  the  door." 

"  Don't  you  wish  you  knew  whether 
you  could  get  it  or  not?  " 

"Yes.  First c  catch  your  hare.'  Thun- 
der !  I  wish  I  did  n't  have  to  wait  till 
to-morrow.  Waiting 's  the  hardest  thing 
in  the  world  !  " 


30          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

The  cousins  slowly  walked  back  on 
the  beach  where  they  had  raced  a  half- 
hour  before. 

"I  '11  let  you  know  just  as  soon  as  I 
can,"  Ben  said  at  parting.  "You  gave 
me  the  idea,  and  who  knows  what  '11 
come  of  it  ?  " 


THE   PURCHASE  31 


CHAPTER   II 

THE    PURCHASE 

"  T  'D  like  to  speak  to  you  on  a  matter 

*     of  business." 

Ben's  face  flushed  in  spite  of  the 
effort  he  made  to  look  unconcerned,  and 
it  vexed  him  that  his  voice  trembled. 

The  old  man  addressed  surveyed  the 
boyish  figure  before  him. 

"  Business  ?  "  he  questioned. 

"Yes.     It's  about  the  Works." 

"  Well,  what  about  'em  ?  " 

"  I  should  think  there'd  be  a  good 
deal  of  lumber  in  the  frame  and  bricks 
in  the  chimney." 

"  Yes,  I  s'pose  there  is ;  but  what 's 
that  to  you  ?  " 

"  I  want  to  know  what  you  '11  take 
for  the  whole  concern  as  it  stands  ?  I 
suppose  the  lease  you  Ve  got  won't  run 
forever." 


32          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  No,  I  guess  it  won't."  Mr.  Madge 
meditated  for  a  moment.  He  needed 
money  badly,  to  finish  a  pet  tunnel  in 
his  "  Bonanza  Princess"  mine.  The 
sum  that  Ben  could  give  would  be  a 
small  one,  he  knew,  but  it  would  be 
better  than  nothing.  As  for  the  lease  — 
"  The  leas'  said  about  that  the  better," 
he  said  to  himself,  with  a  chuckle  at  his 
own  wit.  He  sat  down  on  a  pile  of 
boards  and  motioned  to  Ben  to  take  a 
seat  beside  him.  Then  he  hung  his 
hooked  cane  on  his  left  arm. 

"  How  much  'd  you  have  left  after 
your  father's  affairs  was  settled  up  ? 
Must  Ve  been  quite  a  tidy  little  sum, 
I  reckon." 

Ben  had  resolved  not  to  furnish  any 
information  in  regard  to  his  finances, 
unless  obliged  to  do  so. 

"  There  was  n't  much  left,  after  the 
debts  were  paid,"  he  replied. 

"  Did  n't  he  give  you  all  he  had  'fore 
he  died?" 


THE    PURCHASE  33 

"  Yes.  There  was  n't  any  one  else 
to  leave  it  to,  except  my  cousin,  Beth 
Morton ;  and  my  father  knew  that  if 
he  left  her  anything,  Mr.  Hodges  would 
take  it." 

"  And  you  don't  mean  to  tell  me  't 
you  paid  his  debts  outen  it,  when  you 
was  n't  obliged  to  !  " 

"  Every  last  one  of-  them  !  "  the  boy 
said  with  emphasis. 

"  Well,  Ben  Ralston,  you  are  an  odd 
stick ! "  He  regarded  his  cane  with  a 
speculative  air,  as  though  he  were  com- 
paring it  with  Ben.  "  Guess  I  must  be 
gittin'  along  hom'ards,  now,"  he  added, 
as  he  slowly  rose. 

Ben  was  busily  speculating  upon  his 
intentions.  "  The  old  sharper  means 
to  find  out  exactly  how  much  money 
I  've  got,  and  then  make  a  stand  to  get 
it  all,"  he  thought.  He  instantly  de- 
cided to  furnish  the  information  himself. 

"  I  've  got  just  two  hundred  dollars, — 
not  a  cent  more, —  and  my  board 's  paid 


34          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

to  the  first  of  the  month.  So  you  see 
I  Ve  got  to  get  to  work  at  once,"  he 
said. 

Mr.  Madge  resumed  his  seat.  "  Make 
me  an  offer,"  he  replied,  with  a  shrewd 
glance  at  Ben  from  his  watery  eyes. 

"  That 's  my  offer  :  all  I  Ve  got." 

"U-m-m!  It's  little  enough  for 
the  stuff." 

As  he  paused,  Ben  nerved  himself 
for  the  hardest  part  of  all  —  the  dis- 
closure of  his  object  in  buying  the 
Works.  The  temptation  not  to  unfold 
his  plan  was  very  strong,  but  he  re- 
sisted it. 

"  Lumber 's  tol'rable  high  now,"  the 
old  man  continued,  "  and  it 's  bound 
to  go  higher  Tore  the  year  Js  out."  A 
remembrance  of  the  lease  urged  him 
to  close  the  bargain  at  once.  "  But, 
if  you  're  smart  enough  to  sell  at  a 
profit—" 

"  Before  we  come  to  a  settlement, 
Mr.  Madge,"  Ben  interrupted,  "I  want 


THE   PURCHASE  35 

to  tell  you  of  one  reason  I  have  in 
buying  your  property.  I  mean  to  work 
over  the  bricks  and  soot  of  the  chim- 
ney and  the  ground  for  gold." 

The  old  man  was  visibly  astonished. 

"  So  ?  For  gold  !  Well,  that 's  another 
thing  altogether  ? "  he  remarked,  as  the 
instinct  to  get  the  better  of  a  bargain 
demanded  precedence  over  all  others. 
Then  a  gleam  of  avarice  shone  in  his 
eyes.  "  Tell  you  what,  boy,  if  you  're 
anxious  to  mine,  I  kin  show  you  some 
splendid  properties  !  "  He  waved  his 
cane  in  his  excitement.  "The  place  to 
look  for  gold  is  in  a  virgin  mine,  not 
in  forty-year-old  soot !  " 

"  I  don't  want  any  mine  that  can  be 
bought  for  two  hundred  dollars,"  Ben 
said  with  decision.  "And  I  must  invest 
in  something  right  off.  I  can't  leave 
my  offer  open  either,"  he  added  as  he 
saw  the  other  make  a  move  to  go.  "  If 
I  don't  buy  your  ruin,  I  '11  have  to  get 
into  something  else." 


3-6          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  You  are  in  a  hurry,  ain't  you  ?  I 
wish  't  I  could  persude  you  to  go  into 
a  mine.  'Tain't  no  use,  eh  ?  "  he  added 
as  Ben  shook  his  head.  "Well,"  he 
rose  stiffly,  "  I  '11  see  you  to-morrow 
'bout  it."  " 

"To-morrow  will  do.  I  '11  meet  you 
at  the  Works  at  ten  o'clock.  I  Ve  got 
something  on  hand  for  the  afternoon," 
Ben  answered. 

When  he  was  alone  the  boy  tried  to 
formulate  a  plan  of  operation,  should 
he  succeed  in  buying  the  property.  His 
most  difficult  task  was  to  control  his 
impatience. 

"  I  suppose  I  '11  have  to  do  some 
more  waiting,"  he  said  to  himself. 
"  How  I  wish  to-morrow  were  here  !  " 

He  knew  as  well  as  if  Mr.  Madge 
had  told  him  so,  that  his  statement 
in  regard  to  his  funds  would  not  be 
believed  without  verification. 

"He  couldn't  take  my  word  for  it," 
Ben  reflected ;  "  but  all  his  digging 


THE   PURCHASE  37 

can't  bring  up  anything  more  than  the 
truth.  It 's  just  two  hundred  dollars, — 
not  a  cent  more." 

Shortly  before  ten  o'clock  on  the 
following  morning,  Ben  approached  the 
Works.  He  crossed  the  lumpy,  uneven 
ground  of  the  yard  and  entered  the 
building.  As  he  gazed  at  the  black 
walls  of  the  structure  and  through  the 
many  holes  in  the  roof  where  the  blue 
sky  looked  down,  he  wished  that  they 
might  speak  and  foretell  the  success  or 
failure  of  his  venture. 

The  side  of  the  building  next  to  the 
water  was  built  upon  piles  driven  into 
the  beach,  and  through  an  opening  in 
the  wall  he  could  see  the  waves  run- 
ning back  and  forth,  until  they  almost 
touched  the  building. 

He  was  very  much  excited,  and  in- 
voluntarily he  kept  his  hand  over  the 
pocket  which  held  his  money.  The 
responsibility  of  the  step  he  was  about 


3  8          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

to  take  weighed  heavily  upon  him. 
Never  before  had  he  felt  so  utterly 
alone  in  the  world.  His  visionary 
father  had  been  the  one  heretofore  to 
whom  he  had  naturally  turned  for  ad- 
vice, even  when  he  felt  grave  doubts  as 
to  his  judgment.  Now  he  was  about 
to  risk  his  all  in  a  speculation  which 
might  yield  no  return.  He  was  buoy- 
ant with  hope ;  yet  the  doubt  which 
always  accompanies  a  first  trial  steadied 
him. 

A  rope  hung  from  one  of  the  joists 
of  the  flooring,  and  he  idly  watched  the 
waves  wash  it  backward  and  forward. 
At  another  time  he  would  have  ques- 
tioned the  presence  of  a  deep  furrow 
and  some  footprints  in  the  sand  which 
the  incoming  tide  was  rapidly  obliter- 
ating ;  but  now  he  was  too  preoccupied 
to  notice  them.  He  turned  and  saw 
Mr.  Madge  entering  the  building. 

"  So,  you  got  here  'fore  me,"  the 
old  man  began.  "  It 's  a  good  thing 


THE   PURCHASE  39 

to  be  prompt.  I  don't  know  of  any 
one  thing  I  like  more  in  a  young  man 
than  punctooality.  Allers  practice  it 
and  you  '11  never  be  sorry  for  it."  He 
deliberately  seated  himself.  "  I  recollec' 
once,  way  back  in  the  early  '50*8,  how 
punctooality  paid  me  in  one  of  the 
pootiest  mines  that  mortal  man  ever  see. 
Clear  white  quartz,  with  lumps  of  yel- 
low gold  peppered  all  through  it ! 
'T  was  this  here  way,"  he  continued  as 
he  hung  his  cane  on  his  arm — "the 
mine  b'longed  to  a  man  who  'd  gone 
back  East,  and  had  n't  touched  a  pick 
to  it  for  'most  a  year  ;  so  another  man 
and  me  was  both  a-watchin'  for  the  day 
when  the  year  'd  be  up,  so  's  we  could 
take  up  the  claim." 

Ben  fidgeted  during  this  recital,  but 
the  other  did  not  appear  to  notice  his 
impatience. 

"The  other  feller,"  continued  Mr. 
Madge,  "  he  got  up  at  dawn, — 't  was 
summer  time,  'bout  three  o'clock, — but 


4o          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

when  he  clim'  up  the  hill  to  the  mine, 
there  I  was  a-settin',  havin'  planted  my 
claim  two  hours  before.  I  'd  been 
there  sence  midnight !  "  He  laughed 
at  his  story,  regardless  of  Ben's  in- 
attention. "  Mother  time,  up  in  the 
Comstocks, —  this  time  I  was  just 
a-tellin'  you  'bout  was  in  Nevada 
County  of  this  State, —  I  recollec'  how 
bein'  prompt  saved  a  good  mine  and 
kept  a  hull  concern  from  goin'  to  rack 
and  ruin.  'T  was  a  silver  mine  —  as 
beautiful  green  ore  as  ever  you  see — " 

"  But  I  'd  like  to  know,  first, —  be- 
fore I  hear  about  it,  Mr.  Madge, — 
whether  you  're  going  to  accept  my 
offer  or  not/'  Ben  interrupted,  for 
he  could  no  longer  control  his  im- 
patience. 

"  Well,  I  Ve  ben  thinkin'  over  your 
offer,  Ben,  and  I  Ve  'bout  made  up  my 
mind  that  it  ain  't  no  price  for  the  prop- 
erty, considerin'  the  gold  that's  lyin'  hid 
on  it.  No  price  at  all;  in  fact  — " 


THE   PURCHASE  41 

"  But  it 's  a  chance  whether  I  find 
any  gold  or  not,"  Ben  impatiently  ex- 
claimed. "  When  you  buy  a  mine  do 
you  pay  as  much  for  it  as  you  expect 
to  get  out  of  it  ? "  His  heart  sank 
with  fear  that  his  offer  might  not  be 
accepted.  He  felt  that  he  must  meet 
the  old  man  on  his  own  ground,  and  he 
was  on  his  mettle. 

"It  ain't  much  of  a  price  for  the 
buildin'  material  that's  in  it,  let  alone 
the  gold,"  Mr.  Madge  continued,  as 
if  he  had  not  heard  the  question.  "  I 
ain't  willin'  to  let  it  go  at  your  figure ; 
but  I  '11  tell  you  what  I  '11  do :  I  '11 
go  shares  with  you,  if  you  '11  pay  me 
the  two  hundred,  and  put  up  the  coin 
for  the  machinery.  I  s'pose  a  'rastra 
will  do  for  the  crushin'." 

"  I  don't  care  to  take  a  partner," 
Ben  firmly  replied.  His  heart  was 
growing  heavier  with  every  second  that 
failure  seemed  more  certain. 

He  nerved  himself  for  a  final  effort. 


42          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  If  you  don't  care  to  accept  my  offer, 
Mr.  Madge,  there  's  no  use  wasting  any 
more  words  over  the  matter,"  he  said, 
and  turned  to  go. 

A  vindictive  gleam  shot  from  the  old 
man's  eyes.  He  did  not  reply  for  a 
moment,  but  stopped  Ben  as  he  was 
going  out  of  the  door. 

"  I  need  the  money,"  he  briefly  said; 
"so  I'll  take  your  offer;  but  I'm  just 
a-givin'  it  to  you." 

Ben  dived  in  his  pocket  with  alacrity 
and  produced  a  bill  of  sale  for  the  lum- 
ber and  bricks  and  also  an  agreement 
permitting  him  to  work  over  the  ground 
until  the  expiration  of  the  lease.  The 
dates  of  the  latter  he  had  omitted,  as  he 
did  not  know  them. 

He  had  opened  his  purse  to  pay 
over  the  money  before  he  recalled  the 
omission.  It  flashed  upon  him,  too, 
that  the  paper  should  be  signed  in  the 
presence  of  witnesses.  He  put  his  purse 
back  in  his  pocket. 


THE   PURCHASE  43 

"  Come  to  Hodges'  shop, —  we  must 
have  witnesses,"  Ben  said. 

Mr.  Hodges  was  a  locksmith,  and 
owned  a  small  shop  in  the  old  part  of 
the  city  known  as  North  Beach.  He 
was  Beth's  stepfather ;  and  as  she  was 
Ben's  cousin,  the  boy  naturally  turned 
to  him  as  a  friend. 

He  looked  up  in  surprise  when  his 
visitors  entered,  and  gave  them  a  gruff 
welcome. 

Mr.  Madge  was  in  great  haste  to  sign 
the  papers  and  get  possession  of  the 
money. 

"  The  dates  of  the  lease  must  be  put 
in  first,"  said  Ben.  "  What  are  they  ?  " 

"  Well,  let  me  see,"  said  Mr.  Madge. 
"  'T  was  thirty-five  years  ago,  and  we 
got  it  'cause  't  was  n't  needed  by  the 
owners.  Afterwards,  't  was  made  over 
to  me  by  the  company." 

"That  would  make  it  1866,"  said 
Ben.  He  lifted  the  pen.  "  What  was 
the  month  ? " 


44          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  Let  me  see,"  the  other  replied,  as 
if  striving  to  remember.  "  We  begun 
in  November,  I  think, —  yes,  we  drove 
the  first  pile  for  the  foundation  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  November,  1866."  He 
brought  his  cane  down  with  a  thump, 
to  emphasize  the  statement.  "  I  re- 
member the  time  particularly,  'cause 
't  was  in  that  same  month  that  I  made 
a  fortune  up  in  Tuolumne  County.  I 
owned  the  pootiest  mine  on  the  Mother 
Lode  't  ever  you  see  !  " 

"  I  think  you  Ve  told  me  about  that 
before,  Mr.  Madge,"  Ben  replied  as 
he  filled  in  the  dates.  "  Now,  this  paper 
gives  me  the  sole  right  to  work  over 
the  ground,  bricks,  and  rubbish  of  the 
Smelting  Works,  until  the  expiration 
of  the  lease.  And  that  will  be  until  — " 
Ben  waited  for  Mr.  Madge  to  supply  the 
rest  of  the  sentence. 

"  Certainly  it  does,"  the  latter  said. 
"  You  talk  like  a  regular  lawyer,  Ben." 

"  Business  is  business.      Now,  as  I 


THE   PURCHASE  45 

understand  it,  the  lease  will  expire  on 
the  fifteenth  of  November,  —  that's 
three  months  off.  The  Works  are 
mine  till  then/' 

"  They  're  yours  until  the  lease  ex- 
pires," replied  Mr,  Madge,  with  con- 
siderable impatience.  "  I  'm  ready  to 
sign  if  you  are.  Let 's  get  through 
with  it." 

Ben  passed  the  papers  toward  him 
and  he  affixed  his  signature.  Ben  fol- 
lowed with  his,  and  then  he  turned  to 
Hodges. 

"  Will  you  sign  here,  Mr.  Hodges?" 
he  said. 

"  Yes,  I  '11  sign  the  tomfoolery  to 
oblige  you,"  replied  the  locksmith. 
But  before  he  put  his  name  to  the 
paper  he  relieved  his  mind  by  making 
several  sneering  remarks. 

"  Talk  about  di'monds  and  coal  being 
the  same  !  Why,  that  won't  be  in  it, 
when  it  comes  to  findin'  gold  in  soot 
and  bricks!"  he  said.  "Ben,  you'll 


46          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

be  a  regular  what -do -you -call -it  — 
chemist  ? " 

"An  alchemist?  I  hope  so/'  Ben 
replied  with  flushed  cheeks.  "We 
ought  to  have  another  witness/'  he 
added. 

A  man  who  was  examining  some 
keys  in  the  back  part  of  the  shop  came 
forward. 

"  I  '11  sign,  if  you  want  me  to/'  he 
said.  "  I  heard  the  whole  business, — 
could  n't  help  it." 

They  agreed  and  he  wrote  his  name, 
"Andrew  Mundon,"  in  a  good  bold 
hand. 

Ben  then  paid  Mr.  Madge  the  cov- 
eted twenties  and  the  party  separated. 

Ben  was  eager  to  make  his  escape. 
He  shrank  from  the  coarse  sarcasm 
which  he  knew  would  be  his  share  if  he 
remained  in  the  vicinity  of  the  shop, 
and  he  wanted  to  be  alone  to  think  over 
the  matter. 

"Whew !  I  'm   in    for   it  now  ! "  he 


THE    PURCHASE  47 

exclaimed  as  he  strode  along  the  street, 
with  a  hand  in  each  empty  pocket.  He 
threw  back  his  head  and  stepped  briskly 
along.  "And  I  want  to  tell  you  one 
thing  right  here,"  he  addressed  himself, 
—  "there's  to  be  no  looking  back- 
ward ! " 

He  whistled  a  lively  air  and  quick- 
ened his  steps  as  exciting  thoughts 
crowded  fast  upon  him.  Turning  a 
corner  suddenly,  he  collided  with  a  boy 
of  his  own  age. 

"  Hello,  Syd  !  " 

The  boy  addressed,  gave  a  grunt  in 
reply. 

"  How  do  you  like  the  place  ?  "  Ben 
continued. 

"  O,  it 's  well  enough  for  a  while. 
I  Ve  got  another  one  at  forty  dollars 
a  month,  in  view." 

"Indeed!  How  soon  do  expect  to 
make  the  change  ?  "  Ben  inquired. 

"O,  I  ain't  going  to  work  for  this 
money  long,"  Syd  aggressively  replied, 


48  THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

as  though  his  employer  were  doing  him 
an  injury.  "I  Ve  had  two  offers  —  one 
'11  pay  ten  dollars  more ;  but  there 's 
more  work  and  longer  hours.  I  have  n't 
made  up  my  mind  yet  which  one  I  '11 
take." 

Doubt  was  plainly  written  in  Ben's 
face.  Syd  always  had  some  such  rose- 
colored  yarn  as  this  to  tell  about  him- 
self. 

"  You  're  lucky  to  have  two  such 
good  chances,"  Ben  remarked.  "You 
'11  have  to  look  out  and  take  the  right 
one."  He  turned  to  go,  but  the  other 
stopped  him. 

"  What  are  you  doing  nowadays  ? 
Beth  said  something  about  your  having 
a  tiptop  place." 

"  I  don't  think  she  could  have  said 
that,  Syd." 

"Yes,  she  did,  too,  or  words  to  that 
effect.  You  don't  mean  to  doubt  my 
word,  do  you  ? "  he  defiantly  added. 

"  I  'd  rather  not,"    Ben   quietly  re- 


THE    PURCHASE  49 

plied.  "  We  Ve  fought  all  our  lives  on 
the  slightest  cause,  and  we  're  too  old 
for  that  sort  of  thing,  now." 

"I  don't  want  to  quarrel,  —  but 
that's  what  she  said." 

"I  don't  see  how  that  is  possible, 
when  I  have  n't  any  place  at  all." 

"  Have  n't  any  ?  Ain't  you  work- 
ing?" 

"Yes,  I  'm  going  to  work, — but  for 
myself.  It  is  n't  a  secret  any  longer ;  so 
you  may  as  well  know  it,  since  you  are 
so  interested  in  my  affairs.  I  Ve  bought 
the  old  Smelting  Works,  to  work  them 
for  gold." 

Ben  thoroughly  enjoyed  making  this 
announcement.  Between  Syd  and  him- 
self there  had  always  been  a  rivalry; 
and  after  Syd's  foolish  bragging  about 
something  that  both  knew  to  be  false, 
it  was  a  satisfaction  to  Ben  to  impart 
his  news. 

"For  gold!"  Syd  repeated  in  sur- 
prise. 


50          THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  Yes,  for  gold ;  and  I  expect  to  find 
a  pile." 

"  Well,  I  hope  you  won't  be  disap- 
pointed. Just  give  me  a  lump  to  have 
set  in  a  scarf-pin,  will  you?"  He 
laughed  in  derision. 

"All  right, —  a  small  nugget  will  do, 
I  suppose.  I  must  be  going  now;  good 
morning." 

Syd  gave  a  grunt  in  reply  and 
slouched  away.  Tall  and  awkward, 
he  thrust  his  head  forward  when  he 
walked  and  kept  his  eyes  fixed  on  the 
ground. 

Ben  turned  and  watched  him  for  a 
moment.  "  How  he  would  rejoice  in 
my  failure!"  he  said  to  himself.  "It's 
odd  that  some  people  find  their  pleasure 
in  just  such  things.  Well,  I  hope  he  '11 
not  have  that  joy  at  my  expense,  that 's 
all." 

He  regretted  that  he  had  yielded  to 
the  impulse  to  tell  Syd. 

"  I    wish    I  'd  waited   until   I   could 


THE    PURCHASE  51 

have  shown  him  the  color  of  my  gold," 
he  reflected.  "  Perhaps  I  sha'n't  find 
a  pinch  of  it." 

Glancing  up  he  saw  that  he  had 
nearly  reached  Market  Street,  and, 
obeying  a  sudden  impulse,  he  crossed 
that  great  artery  and  turned  his  steps 
toward  the  foundries. 

He  was  glad  to  have  something  to 
divert  his  thoughts  from  his  interview 
with  Syd,  and  he  spent  the  rest  of  the 
day  in  looking  at  machinery,  more 
especially  that  used  in  mining. 

The  clash  and  clamor  of  the  busy 
hives  brought  the  difficulties  of  his 
undertaking  glaringly  before  him.  His 
own  ignorance  seemed  appalling.  How 
could  he  hope  to  compete  with  this 
skilled  labor  and  wonderful  machinery ! 

"  I  am  not  competing,"  he  told  him- 
self. "  I  am  doing  something  which  no 
one  else  has  thought  of.  The  idea  is 
original, —  here,  at  any  rate, —  and  ideas 
can  be  made  to  pay." 


52          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 


CHAPTER    III 

THE  SMUGGLERS'   CACHE   is    FOUND 

'POSE  you're  goin'  to  put  in  a 
'rastra?" 

Ben  turned  and  saw  the  man  who  had 
signed  as  a  witness  to  the  agreement. 

"  How  do  you  do,  Mr.  Mundon  ?  " 
he  replied.  "Yes,  I  think  it  will  need 
an  arastra  to  crush  the  bricks."  His 
grave  face  showed  that  already  the  cares 
of  the  undertaking  were  preying  upon 
him. 

"Don't  you  mind  the  sneers  and 
laughs  of  anybody,"  the  man  said,  with 
a  sturdy  independence  that  Ben  liked. 
"  You  Ve  got  a  good  proposition.  I  Ve 
seen  it  done  in  Australia  and  a  big  pile 
cleaned  up.  They  do  it  in  this  country, 
too ;  and  if  this  old  chap  you  bought 
it  from  did  n't  have  the  mining  fever  so 
bad,  he  'd  have  done  it  years  ago." 


THE   SMUGGLERS'   CACHE         53 

"  Evidently,  it  hasn't  occurred  to  him 
—  or  anybody,"  said  Ben. 

"No;  he's  too  high  to  be  a  gleaner; 
wants  real  mines  with  drifts  and  tun- 
nels and  mills  to  make  his  money  melt. 
Now '{  I  was  goin'  to  do  this  job,  I  'd 
put  in  a  rough  'rastra — just  a  round 
bed  of  bricks,  with  a  two -foot  wall 
'round  it." 

Ben  did  not  reply,  but  he  tried  to 
look  wise. 

"  That 's  about  your  plan,  I  reckon  ?  " 

"Yes,"  the  boy  said,  "I've  been 
thinking  that  an  arastra,  such  as  you 
describe,  would  be  the  best  thing." 

"Then  you  know  all  about  one,  of 
course  ?  " 

"  No,  I  don't;  not  by  a  long  sight. 
I  've  seen  one  at  work,  but  I  did  n't 
pay  much  attention  to  it — I  was  so 
young  at  the  time." 

"  O,  in  that  case  p'raps  you  'd  like  to 
have  me  describe  one  to  you  ?  " 

"I  would,  indeed,"  Ben  fervently 
replied. 


54          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  Well,  it 's  just  a  round  bed  of  bricks, 
with  a  two-foot  wall  'round  it.  I  'd 
build  that  the  first  thing,  if  I  was  you, 
and  put  in  the  rubbish,  a  little  at  a 
time.  You  want  to  put  in  some  quick- 
silver with  it.  Then  I  'd  get  a  horse 
or  a  mule  ter  drag  'round  a  weight 
till  the  bricks  and  mortar  was  well 
crushed." 

"Would  you  put  the  stuff  in  wet  or 
dry?" 

"  Wet ;  and  you  want  consid'able 
water,  too.  I  tell  you,  it 's  pretty  to 
see  how  the  quicksilver  '11  pick  up  'most 
every  mite  of  gold  and  hug  to  the  bot- 
tom with  it ! " 

Ben's  eyes  shone.  "It  must  be  !"  he 
said.  "And  afterwards  —  what  do  you 
do  next  ?  I  've  heard,  but  I  Ve  kind  of 
forgotten  just  what  comes  next." 

"You  throw  off  your  coarse  stuff 
from  the  top  and  strain  the  quicksilver 
through  buckskin." 

"Will  it  go  through?" 


THE   SMUGGLERS'   CACHE         55 

"  Will  it  ?  Well,  you  just  ought  ter 
see  it  come  through  the  buckskin  till 
there 's  little  looking-glass  tears  all 
over  it." 

"And  after  that  ?  " 

"  Well,  you  finish  it  all  off  in  a  retort 
with  a  long  tube.  Build  a  fire  under  it, 
and  your  quicksilver  that 's  left  will 
'vaporate,  leavin'  the  gold  behind." 

"  I  should  think  you  'd  lose  a  lot." 

"  Of  quicksilver,  you  mean  ?  No, 
you  don't ;  'cause  you  got  ter  keep  the 
tube  cold  and  have  the  end  of  it  sunk  in 
water.  Then  the  quicksilver  '11  con- 
dense again — so  you  won't  lose  much 
of  it.  My  !  how  them  lumps  of  gold 
will  shine  to  you,  eh?" 

The  boy's  eyes  sparkled  with  delight, 
but  he  only  nodded.  He  was  thinking 
very  hard.  Here,  evidently,  was  just 
the  man  he  needed.  He  had  seen  an 
arastra  at  work  in  one  of  his  father's 
mines,  but  he  knew  nothing  about  the 
practical  details  necessary  to  the  con- 


56          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

struction  of  one.  Should  he  offer  to 
employ  this  man,  or  should  he  offer  him 
a  percentage  of  the  profits  ?  The  latter 
proposition  seemed  the  more  feasible; 
for,  although  it  might  cost  him  more 
in  the  end,  he  had  no  ready  money  to 
pay  out  in  wages.  His  mind  was 
quickly  made  up. 

"I'll  tell  you  what  I'll  do,  Mr. 
Mundon.  If  you  '11  help  me  with  the 
scheme, — I  don't  mean  just  by  talking, 
but  with  day's  work, —  I'll  give  you 
one  third  of  the  net  proceeds." 

"  That 's  a  square  offer, —  seein'  as 
how  I  aint  got  nothin'  to  put  in, —  and 
I  '11  take  it.  I  'm  out  of  a  job  just 
now,  through  waitin'  fur  a  friend  from 
Australia.  I  expect  he'll  be  here  in  a 
month  more, —  or  mebbe  't  will  be  sev- 
eral,—  and  then  we  '11  try  Colorado 
together.  I  'd  reely  like  this  work  to 
fill  up  the  time.  There 's  something 
sort  of  venturesome  'bout  it,  that  'peals 


to  me." 


THE   SMUGGLERS'   CACHE         57 

"And  I  'm  very  glad  to  get  you  to 
help  me,"  Ben  replied ;  "  I  Ve  been 
worrying  a  good  deal  since  I  bought  it." 

"  I  'd  thought  of  it  a  little,  myself; 
and  I  come  out  here  to-day  'cause  I 
kinder  thought  I  'd  find  you  a-hangin' 
'round  somewheres  near  this  place." 

"  Let 's  go  in  and  look  over  the 
ground,"  said  Ben. 

They  entered  the  inclosure  and  Mun- 
don  selected  the  most  suitable  place  for 
the  arastra. 

"The  next  question  is,  where  am  I 
to  get  the  money  for  the  things  we 
need?"  Ben  remarked.  "I  could  get 
them  on  credit,  I  think,  from  an  old 
mining  friend  of  my  father's;  but  I 
hate  to  go  in  debt,  especially  on  an  un- 
certainty. I  Ve  been  thinking  about 
offering  him  a  small  percentage  in  ex- 
change for  the  materials.  Then,  it 
would  be  his  own  risk  whether  he  got 
his  money  or  not." 

"  Pshaw !     You  don't  want  to  give 


58          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

away  any  more  percentages.  A  man  's 
got  to  go  in  debt — more  or  less — in 
'most  every  business.  Besides,  your 
money's  right  in  sight,  as  it  were." 

"  No,  it  is  n't,"  Ben  stoutly  replied. 
"  That 's  just  the  trouble ;  I  think  it  is, 
but  I  don't  know  it.  What  right  have 
I  to  promise  to  pay  a  man  out  of  my 
thinking?" 

"  There  ain't  any  other  way.  You  've 
just  got  to  do  it ;  or  borrow  the  money 
from  some  one  else,  which  amounts  to 
the  same  thing."  He  paused  for  a 
reply,  but  as  he  noticed  Ben's  hesita- 
tion he  hastened  to  divert  him  from 
his  weighing  of  right  and  wrong.  "  I 
recollec'  a  chimney  on  one  of  Senator 
Fair's  mills  up  in  Nevada,  that  yielded 
a  pile  of  gold  and  silver  when  't  was 
broke  up.  Why,  they  found  one  solid 
lump  of  silver  half  as  big  as  my  fist,  in 
a  crack  in  the  masonry.  You  see,  the 
gold  what  stays  in  the  furnaces,  works 
right  into  the  mortar  and  bricks  in  a 


THE   SMUGGLERS'   CACHE         59 

dust  so  fine  you  can't  see  it.  That 's 
why  you  need  a  'rastra.  But,  some- 
times, fine  particles  of  precipitated 
silver  '11  get  blown  into  a  crack,  until 
there  's  a  big  lump  formed." 

They  peered  up  the  gaping  black 
mouth  of  the  chimney.  The  furnaces 
had  been  roughly  torn  out  and  large 
openings  marked  where  they  had  joined 
the  chimney. 

"  Tell  you  what,  Ben,"  exclaimed 
Mundon,  "s'pose  I  skin  up  and  see 
what  I  kin  see?" 

"  No,  let  me  go !  "  the  boy  eagerly 
replied. 

He  was  a  trifle  ashamed  of  the  jeal- 
ousy he  had  already  begun  to  feel  of 
this  man's  wider  experience.  If  there 
were  lumps  of  gold  and  silver  glitter- 
ing in  his  chimney,  he  wanted  to  be  the 
first  to  see  them. 

"It's  a  dirty  job;  but  I've  got  on 
old  clothes."  He  said  as  he  began  to 
climb  up  the  black  funnel. 


60          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

Somehow,  it  was  not  nearly  so  sooty 
as  he  had  expected  to  find  it,  and  the 
projecting  corners  of  the  bricks  that 
afforded  him  a  slight  foothold  were 
quite  light-colored. 

He  had  climbed  about  ten  feet  when 
he  saw  a  curious  cavity  in  the  side  of 
the  chimney.  A  glitter  in  the  dim  light 
made  his  heart  beat  very  fast.  Striking 
a  taper  match  he  was  surprised  to  see  a 
pile  of  small  tin  boxes  nearly  filling  a 
cavity  in  the  side  of  the  chimney. 
Looking  upward,  he  saw  several  similar 
breaks  in  the  brickwork.  He  took  one 
of  the  boxes  and  climbed  down. 

"What  have  you  got?"  cried  Mun- 
don,  with  more  surprise  in  his  voice 
than  gave  great  credit  to  the  tale  he  had 
just  recounted. 

They  bent  over  the  box,  which  emit- 
ted a  sickishly  sweet  odor. 

"  Opium  ! "  Mundon  exclaimed. 

For  a  moment  they  looked  at  each 
other  in  silent  astonishment.  Then 


THE   SMUGGLERS'    CACHE         61 

Ben  grasped  Mundon's  arm  and  dragged 
him  to  the  gap  in  the  side  of  the  build- 
ing next  the  water. 

"It's  been  smuggled!"  he  cried. 
"And  here  's  where  they  've  landed  the 
boats!"  He  pointed  to  the  beach  at 
their  feet.  The  waves  were  still  play- 
ing with  the  dangling  rope's  end. 

"Was  there  any  more?"  questioned 
Mundon. 

"  Whole  stacks  of  it." 

"Then  youVe  got  all  the  money 
you  're  in  need  of,  many  times  over. 
Right  in  sight  this  time,  sure ! " 

"  How  so  ?" 

"Why,  don't  you  know't  the  law 
gives  an  informer  thirty-three  per  cent. 
of  the  value  of  the  find?  'Course  it 
does.  All  you  've  got  to  do  is  to  no- 
tify the  Custom  House  men  of  the 
find  V  they'll  do  the  rest." 

"You  think  it's  been  landed  here, 
don't  you?"  asked  Ben. 

"Sure.     It's    ben    landed  from  the 


62          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

China  steamers,  sure 's  you're  born! 
There  could  n't  have  ben  a  better  place 
for  'em,  if  it  had  ben  made  on  purpose. 
Prob'ly  they  muffled  their  oars  Tore 
they  landed." 

"It  is  n't  ten  minutes'  row  from  the 
steamers,"  said  Ben. 

"  No.  Like  as  not  the  butcher,  or 
some  one  like  that,  after  the  ship's 
trade,  is  one  of  the  gang.  You  Ve  seen 
the  flock  of  small  boats  that  follow  like 
gulls  after  a  big  ocean  steamer?" 

Ben  nodded.  He  was  stupefied  with 
surprise.  His  good  fortune  seemed  too 
good  to  be  true. 

"  Tell  you  what,  Ben,  like  as  not 
those  Custom  House  fellers  '11  want  to 
leave  the  stuff  here  and  set  a  watch  ter 
ketch  the  gang." 

"I  don't  care  what  they  do — if  I 
can  get  the  money." 

"  You  can't  b'lieve  it  yet,  eh  ?  I 
tell  you,  you  're  jest  as  sure  of  that 
there  money,  as  if  you  had  it  in  your 
pocket  this  minute." 


THE    SMUGGLERS'   CACHE         63 

"It's  like  magic!" 

"  So  't  is,  so  't  is  — 't  is  the  bag  at  the 
foot  of  a  rainbow,  sure  enough."  He 
pointed  at  the  massive  shaft  of  the 
chimney. 

"  Fairy  gold ! "  Ben  waved  the  little 
box  at  Mundon. 

"  That 's  all  right.  You  '11  find  out 
that  the  gold  you  get  for  that 's  as  good 
as  twenty-dollar  pieces  are  made  of. 
Want  me  ter  go  down  and  inform,  or 
prefer  ter  do  it  yourself? " 

"  I  '11  go." 

"  Jest  as  you  say.  You  're  boss 
here.  You  found  it  on  your  property, 
and  it 's  proper  you  should  go.  I  '11 
stay  and  keep  watch." 


64          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 
CHAPTER     IV 

FUNDS    FOR    THE    ENTERPRISE 

BEN'S  first  impulse  was  to  go  home 
and  change  his  clothes,  which 
showed  the  contact  of  dust  and  soot ; 
but  it  was  past  three  o'clock  and  he 
was  afraid  if  he  did  not  make  haste  he 
would  not  see  the  proper  authorities. 

He  stopped  at  Hodges'  shop  to  wash 
his  face  and  hands. 

Mr.  Hodges  was  fitting  a  key  to  a 
metal  box. 

"Hello!"  he  remarked  as  Ben  hur- 
ried past  him  to  the  rear  of  the  shop. 
"You  look  as  if  you'd  found  your  for- 
tune already." 

"Maybe  I  have,"  Ben  replied.  "I  '11 
let  you  know  when  I  Ve  verified  the 
find." 

Mr.  Hodge  stared.  He  had  a  lurk- 
ing suspicion  that  he  was  being  made 
game  of. 


FUNDS   FOR   THE   ENTERPRISE    65 

"A  young  feller  always  knows  it  all," 
he  commented.  "  He  's  always  so  cock- 
sure." 

"Wonder  if  I  am  that  way,"  thought 
Ben,  as  he  pursued  his  way  down  the 
street.  "  Anyway,  I  'd  rather  fail  than 
never  have  been  through  it.  There  's 
something  doing,  and  I  'm  in  it !  " 

He  was  so  preoccupied  as  he  hurried 
along  that  once  he  narrowly  escaped 
being  run  down  by  a  whizzing  electric 
car. 

The  prospect  opening  before  him 
fairly  made  him  dizzy  with  delight.  He 
felt  that  he  had  suddenly  become  a  man, 
and  dimly  wondered  how  it  was  possi- 
ble that  a  month  before  he  had  played 
"  shinny  "  and  "  pee-wee  "  with  the 
other  boys,  as  if  there  were  nothing 
else  to  live  for.  And  now — he  had 
gone  into  business !  He  would  suc- 
ceed—  he  must  succeed  ! 

Mingled  with  his  delight  at  his  sud- 
den good  luck,  there  was  a  feeling  of 


66          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

relief  that  he  had  resisted  the  tempta- 
tion to  go  into  debt. 

At  length  he  came  in  sight  of  the 
Custom  House,  a  dilapidated  brick 
building,  the  first  floor  of  which  was 
used  as  the  main  post-office.  Ben  slowly 
climbed  the  winding  stone  stairs.  He 
suddenly  wanted  more  time  than  the 
elevator  would  allow  to  think  of  how 
he  should  tell  his  story. 

After  a  short  delay  he  was  ushered 
into  the  presence  of  the  Collector  of 
the  Port.  Ben  explained  his  plan  and 
his  accidental  discovery  of  the  opium. 

He  fancied  that  the  official  and  a 
gentleman  who  was  sitting  in  the  room 
seemed  to  be  much  more  interested  in 
his  scheme  to  work  over  the  bricks  and 
rubbish  of  the  old  Smelting  Works  for 
gold,  than  they  were  in  the  discovery 
of  the  opium. 

He  noted  that  the  visitor  was  ad- 
dressed as  "  Mr.  Hale,"  and  he  won- 
dered if  he  were  the  well-known  lawyer 


FUNDS    FOR   THE    ENTERPRISE    67 

of  whom  he  had  heard.  This  gentle- 
man asked  Ben  several  questions  in 
relation  to  his  plan  ;  and  although  his 
eyes  and  voice  were  kind,  the  boy's 
sensitive  spirit  shrank  under  the  tone 
of  the  questioner.  The  amusement  in 
his  eyes  seemed  to  foretell  the  failure 
of  the  venture. 

The  attention  of  the  chief  being 
called  to  other  matters,  he  sent  for  a 
deputy  to  whom  he  referred  Ben's  case. 
This  official,  also,  appeared  to  be  much 
interested  in  Ben's  private  affairs,  and 
plied  him  with  questions,  some  of 
which  were,  apparently,  irrelevant. 

Nettled,  he  knew  not  why,  by  the 
man's  manner  and  questions,  Ben  finally 
asserted  himself. 

"  I  bought  the  property  to  work  over 
for  what  I  could  get  out  of  it,"  he  said. 
"By  accident  I  found  a  lot  of  opium 
hidden  on  the  premises,  and  I  expect 
to  get  the  thirty-three  per  cent,  which 
the  law  allows."  The  look  which  ac- 


68          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

companied  this  speech  said  plainer  than 
words,  "Now,  what  are  you  going  to 
do  about  it  ?  " 

Mr.  Cutter  meditatively  regarded 
the  speaker.  "  We  '11  set  a  watch  there 
to-night  and  catch  some  of  the  gang  if 
we  can,"  he  finally  remarked.  "You  're 
a  pretty  smart  boy,"  —  he  brought  his 
hand  down  on  Ben's  shoulder, —  "  can 
you  keep  a  secret  ?  " 

Ben  nodded. 

"See  that  you  do,  then.  And  cau- 
tion the  friend  who  was  with  you  to 
tell  no  one, —  absolutely  no  one.  Such 
news  goes  like  wildfire." 

"  We  would  n't  be  apt  to  tell  and 
run  the  risk  of  losing  the  reward." 

"  Umph  !  Some  folks  could  n't  keep 
a  secret  if  their  lives  depended  upon  it. 
That 's  all,"  he  curtly  added.  "When 
I  want  you  I  '11  send  for  you." 

Without  knowing  why,  Ben  mis- 
trusted this  man.  "Cutter  is  your 
name,  and  I  sha'n't  forget  you,"  he  said 


FUNDS   FOR   THE   ENTERPRISE    69 

to  himself,  as  he  retraced  his  steps  to 
North  Beach. 

Mundon  was  anxiously  awaiting  his 
return. 

"  Did  they  snub  you  ?  Did  you  see 
the  head  ?  "  he  asked. 

Ben  related  his  experience. 

"  You  were  in  luck  to  see  the  Collec- 
tor," commented  Mundon. 

"  My  belief  is  that  the  chief's  all 
right  in  such  cases, —  a  big  man  who 
won't  stoop  to  no  dirty  business  and 
who  '11  listen  to  a  feller's  story  and 
treat  him  fair.  He 's  got  a  sense  of 
what  he 's  ben  put  in  office  for,  by  the 
people,  to  serve  the  people.  But  a 
smarty  clerk  who  takes  delight  in  snub- 
bing the  people  who  really  give  him  his 
bread  and  butter  —  deliver  me  from 
him  !  He  's  gen'rally  a  failure,  a  ne'er- 
do-well,  who 's  got  his  place  through 
his  second  cousin's  husband  havin'  a 
pull,  and  because  he  could  n't  support 
himself  and  had  to  be  taken  care  of  by 


70          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

his  family, —  and  he  just  thinks  he  runs 
this  whole  government." 

"  They  '11  be  here  about  dark,  I  sup- 
pose," Ben  remarked.  "  I  'm  going  to 
watch,  too." 

"  Well,  I  think  I  '11  be  excused," 
Mundon  remarked.  "In  my  opinion, 
there  ain't  one  chance  in  a  hundred  of 
their  catchin'  'em." 

"  Why  should  n't  they  catch  them 
if  they  come  back  here  for  the  opium  ?  " 
Ben  innocently  inquired. 

"  Why,  boy,  there 's  more  plaguey 
ramifications  to  a  gang  like  that.  From 
what  you  Ve  told  me,  it  would  n't  sur- 
prise me  to  find  that  this  man  Cutter 's 
in  it  himself.  Most  likely  every  move 
you  Ve  made  has  ben  known  to  'em  ; 
and  they  'd  hev  taken  the  stuff  away  if 
they  'd  got  a  chance." 

All  that  night  the  Custom  House 
men  kept  a  watch  at  the  Works. 

Ben  watched  with  them,  looking  off 
on  the  waters  of  the  bay  and  listening 


FUNDS   FOR   THE    ENTERPRISE    71 

for  the  dip  of  muffled  oars.  More 
than  once  he  fancied  he  heard  the  smug- 
glers approaching,  and  his  heart  beat 
fast  as  he  waited  to  be  sure  before  call- 
ing the  men. 

He  felt  a  great  distaste  for  his  posi- 
tion, and  correctly  attributed  Mundon's 
refusal  to  join  in  the  watch  to  the  same 
reason.  When  morning  dawned  he 
experienced  a  distinct  relief  that  nothing 
had  occurred  during  the  night  to  place 
him  in  the  position  of  an  informer. 


72          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 
CHAPTER   V 

BEN'S    PARTNER    PROVES    A    TRUMP 

THE  watch  was  continued  for  several 
nights,  but  in  vain.  As  none  came 
to  claim  the  opium,  it  was  taken  away 
and  a  valuation  of  two  thousand  dollars 
was  placed  upon  it,  of  which  Ben's 
share  amounted  to  nearly  seven  hun- 
dred dollars. 

It  did  not  seem  possible  that  those 
little  boxes,  filled  with  a  sticky  sub- 
stance which  looked  like  very  black 
and  thick  molasses,  could  be  worth  so 
much.  The  readiness  with  which  a 
broker  advanced  Ben  the  money  due  on 
his  claim,  however,  was  tangible  evi- 
dence, and  he  found  no  fault  with  the 
exorbitant  rate  of  interest  exacted. 

There  was  one  phase  of  the  affair 
that  was  most  unpleasant  to  Ben, —  the 
suspicion  with  which  the  Government 
officials  regarded  Mundon  and  himself. 


BEN'S    PARTNER   A   TRUMP        73 

"  Some  one  blabbed,'*  one  of  them 
pointedly  said  to  him,  "  or  else  the  par- 
ties who  stowed  that  stuff  away  would 
have  come  back  for  it." 

Another  time  he  overheard  one  man 
remark  to  another,  "  I  don't  agree  with 
you.  I  think  the  boy 's  honest  enough ; 
but  that  fellow  with  him  looks  like  a 
a  slippery  one." 

"  But  the  boy 's  the  one  who  gets  the 
reward." 

"  I  know.  But  that  fellow  '11  get  it 
out  of  him  before  he 's  through  with 
him." 

A  thought  that  this  might  be  true 
came  into  Ben's  mind,  but  he  dismissed 
it  at  once  as  unworthy.  Yet  it  is  hard 
to  get  rid  of  a  vicious  weed,  and  this 
doubt  presented  itself  to  him  from  time 
to  time. 

Mundon  proved  more  useful  to  Ben 
as  time  went  on  and  his  own  ignorance 
and  inexperience  became  more  marked. 
He  congratulated  himself  many  times 


74          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

upon  the  good  luck  which  had  sent  this 
man  across  his  path. 

"  Gee-willikens,  Mundon  !  How  are 
we  ever  going  to  get  this  chimney 
down  ? "  Ben  looked  up  at  the  massive 
pillar  of  brick  which  reared  itself  above 
him.  "  It  looks  about  a  mile  high, 
when  you  stand  close  to  it.  Why," 
he  added  with  a  blank  look,  "  it  '11  take 
us  months  to  level  it." 

"  You  was  a-calculatin'  to  level  it?" 
Mundon  laconically  asked. 

"  Of  course.  How  else  can  we  work 
over  the  bricks  that  are  in  it?" 

"  Um  !  How  'd  you  think  you  'd 
git  it  down  ?  " 

"  Well  —  that 's  what 's  worrying  me. 
I  had  a  sort  of  plan  to  scrape  down  the 
soot.  But  the  bricks  —  how  are  we 
going  to  get  at  them  ?  " 

"  Your  idee  is  good  —  as  fur  as  it 
goes ;  but  I  think  I  can  give  you  a 
better  one  than  scrapin'  the  chimney 
of  soot." 


BEN'S   PARTNER   A   TRUMP        75 

"  Let 's  have  it." 

"  I  'd  rig  a  cross-piece  —  shaped  just 
like  a  cross  —  to  work  inside  the  chim- 
ney, from  a  rope  over  the  top,  like  an 
elevator." 

Ben  caught  his  breath.  "  How  would 
you  ever  get  a  rope  over  the  top  ? "  he 
asked. 

"  O,  that 's  easy.  I  have  n't  ben  a 
sailor  fur  nothin'.  Then,  I  'd  chip  off 
the  whole  inside  of  the  chimney." 

"  We  'd  work  just  the  inside  ?  " 

"  That's  all  we  want,  ain't  it?  It's 
the  golden  linin'  we  're  after.  We  don't 
want  the  rest." 

"  No ;  and  it  will  save  time  and 
strength  to  leave  the  rest  alone." 

"  We  '11    leave    the    balance    of    the 
bricks    for    those    that   come  after  us. 
'T  won't    hurt    the   chimney    a    mite, 
neither." 

"  Mundon,  you  're  a  brick  !  "  ex- 
claimed Ben. 

Mundon    waited    a    moment    before 


;6          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

replying.  He  liked  the  frank  admira- 
tion that  shone  in  Ben's  eyes. 

"  There  ain't  nothin'  sure  in  this 
world,  Ben,  and  it 's  mighty  oncertain 
sometimes  to  draw  conclusions  from 
things  you  Ve  ben  told.  What 's  more, 
you  can't  b'lieve  all  you  hear." 

"  You  're  preparing  me  to  be  disap- 
pointed, Mundon,"  said  Ben.  "  But  I  'm 
bracing  myself  for  that,  too.  I  know 
it 's  a  chance." 

"  Most  everythin'  is  — 'cept  runnin' 
a  peanut-stand  near  a  monkey's  cage." 

Ben  laughed.  "  How  you  're  ever 
going  to  get  a  rope  over  that  top  ? " 
He  looked  up  and  shook  his  head  in 
despair. 

"  No  fear  —  I  '11  manage  that.  Just 
let  me  get  some  stuff  for  a  scaffoldin' 
and  I  '11  show  you  the  trick  in  a  jiffy." 

"  You  're  a  wonder,"  Ben  replied. 

The  question  as  to  what  he  should 
have  done  without  Mundon's  help  oc- 
curred to  him  again,  but  he  did  not 
express  it. 


BEN'S   PARTNER   A   TRUMP        77 

"  I  heard  when  I  was  up  town  this 
mornin'  that  there  was  goin'  to  be  a 
sale  of  mules  to-morrow." 

"  You  think  we  '11  need  one  to  work 
the  arastra  ? " 

"  Could  n't  hev  nothin'  better.  This 
sale  's  goin'  to  be  at  a  horse-market  out 
near  the  Potrero.  S'pose  you  see  if 
you  kin  get  one  cheap." 

"Yes;  I'll  go  to  the  sale."  Ben 
paused.  "  I  say,  Mundon,  what  is 
cheap  —  for  a  mule  ?  " 

"  'Bout  fifteen  dollars  ought  to  git 
one  good  enough,  at  an  auction." 

"  That  was  about  the  figure  I  had  in 
mind.  Of  course,  I  don't  ask  your 
opinion,  Mundon,  so  much  to  get  ad- 
vice as  I  do  to  compare  notes.  I  like 
to  see  if  your  judgment  and  mine 
agree." 

Mundon  did  not  look  up,  but  went 
steadily  on  with  his  work.  "  I  under- 
stand—  of  course,"  he  replied. 


78          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 


CHAPTER  VI 

THE    MULE   AUCTION 

"  A  MULE  is  very  much  like  a  horse, 
/A  isn't  it  ?  "  Ben  questioned,  on  the 
following  morning. 

"  Yes ;  they  are  somewhat  similar," 
Mundon  replied,  going  on  with  the 
task  of  untangling  some  old  harness. 

"  Yet  they  're  different,  too." 

"  That 's  so  ;  they  are." 

Ben  did  not  like  to  admit  his  igno- 
rance, but  he  very  much  desired  some 
further  information  on  the  subject  of 
mules  before  he  entered  the  arena  of 
the  auction.  He  had  a  guilty  con- 
sciousness that  he  had  made  Mundon 
feel  that  he  resented  his  superior  wis- 
dom in  many  things  connected  with 
their  undertaking,  and  that  he  was  un- 
reasonably jealous  of  his  worldly  knowl- 
edge. He  regretted  and  was  ashamed 


THE    MULE   AUCTION  79 

of  his  ingratitude  toward  this  man  who 
had  proved  invaluable  to  him,  and  he 
hoped  that  the  other  would  overlook  it. 

"  If  you  were  going  to  buy  a  horse, 
Mundon,  what  particular  points  would 
you  look  for  in  the  animal  ?  " 

"  Well,  I  'd  see  that  he  had  a  broad 
forehead,  good  straight,  clean  legs,  round 
hoofs,  small  ears,  clear  eyes,  and,  most 
of  all,  a  wide  chest.  But,  of  course, 
these  don't  hold  good  in  a  mule." 

"  No  ;  I  suppose  not." 

"  Then,  he  oughter  be  in  good  per- 
portion.  I  Ve  seen  horses  with  a  fine- 
lookin'  front  and  a  back  all  shrunk  up. 
And  I  Ve  seen  some  with  a  fine  back 
and  a  front  that  had  a  stunted  look. 
An  animal  like  that  ain't  apt  to  have 
much  strength  or  wearin'  qualities. 
Then,  there  's  exceptions.  I  remember 
one  of  the  best  horses  for  pullin'  I  ever 
saw  had  a  sort  of  stunted  front.  But, 
of  course,  none  of  these  things  hold 
good  in  a  mule." 


8o          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  No ;  nothing  seems  to  apply  to  a 
mule."  Ben  picked  up  a  strap  which 
dangled  from  the  harness  and  began 
untangling  it.  "  Have  n't  the  teeth 
something  to  do  with  it  ?  " 

"  Sure  !  They  're  the  most  impor- 
tant point,  'cause  that 's  the  way  you  kin 
tell  a  horse's  age  —  by  his  teeth.  If 
they  're  long,  he  's  old.  You  want  to 
see  that  they  ain't  ben  filed,  too." 

"  Do  you  think  the  point  about  the 
teeth  would  apply  to  a  mule  ? "  Ben 
asked. 

"  There  ain't  nothin'  that  applies  to 
a  mule  except  —  patience.  You  Ve  got 
to  have  everlastin'  patience  when  you 
come  near  a  mule.  But,  they  're  know- 
in'.  Lordy !  I  've  had  'em  teamin'  up 
in  the  mountains  when  they  knew  a 
sight  more  'n  most  men.  I  'd  talk  to 
'em  just  like  they  was  humans.  c  Sal,' 
I'd  say,  '  don't  you  know  better 'n  to 
hug  so  close  to  that  bank  ? '  And  be- 
fore the  words  was  out  of  my  mouth, 


THE    MULE   AUCTION  81 

Sal  would  be  a-standin'  way  off  from  the 
bank.  And  all  I  had  to  do  to  git  one 
of  'em  over  the  chain, —  there  's  a  chain 
runs  between  'em  in  place  of  a  pole, 
you  know,  and  mebbe  I  'd  have  sixteen 
or  twenty  strung  along  in  pairs, —  and 
if  I  wanted  to  git  one  of  'em  over  it 
I  'd  jest  call  out  the  name,  and  that 
mule  would  jump  the  chain  quick  as 
lightnin'.  A  horse  has  got  a  heap  of 
sense,  but,  in  my  opinion,  a  mule  kin 
discount  him  every  time." 

"We  're  safer,  then,  in  buying  a  mule 
than  a  horse  ?  " 

"  Law,  yes  !  For  the  work  you 
want  done,  you  are." 

"Well,  I  '11  be  going  along,  I  guess," 
remarked  Ben.  "  I  want  to  look  over 
the  field  before  the  sale  begins." 

"  That  'd  be  a  good  idee." 

Ben  boarded  an  electric  car  which 
crossed  the  city.  He  was  dubious  as 
to  his  ability  for  the  task  he  had  un- 
dertaken, and  regretted  that  he  had  not 


82          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

asked  Mundon  to  go  in  his  place.  He 
ran  over  the  directions  for  buying  a 
horse. 

"  Round-hoofed,  small-eared,  broad- 
headed,  clear-eyed,  short-teethed,  clean- 
legged,  wide-chested,  and  good-propor- 
tioned," he  enumerated.  "  I  'm  primed 
for  a  horse-sale,  if  I  ever  need  to  go  to 
one ;  but  I  'm  all  at  sea  about  a  mule." 

Mundon  had  seemed  to  be  singu- 
larly averse  to  offering  to  make  the 
purchase,  Ben  reflected,  although  he 
had  been  given  ample  opportunity  to 
do  so,  and  he  was  so  well  qualified  to 
select  exactly  the  animal  needed. 

He  had  appeared  anxious  to  get  Ben 
out  of  the  way.  Could  it  be  possible 
that  he  meant  to  make  the  attempt  to 
get  the  rope  over  the  top  of  the  chim- 
ney during  his  absence?  How  would 
he  manage  it?  It  seemed  a  colossal, 
impossible  task. 

The  car  clanged  its  bell  along  Kearny 
Street,  whizzed  across  Market  and 


THE    MULE   AUCTION  83 

swung  into  Third  Street,  on  its  way  to 
the  Potrero.  A  wild  idea  occurred  to 
Ben.  "  If  there 's  a  mule  in  the  in- 
closure  that  points  his  ears  at  me,  I  '11 
buy  him/'  he  decided. 

Association  with  his  father  had  im- 
planted superstition  in  the  boy's  charac- 
ter. Ben  had  seen  it  sway  his  father 
many  times,  as  indeed  it  exerted  an 
influence  more  or  less  potent  upon  all 
miners. 

A  recollection  of  the  sum  he  had 
resolved  to  expend  reminded  Ben  that 
the  occult  must  be  confined  within  the 
limits  of  fifteen  dollars. 

"  I  don't  know  the  first  thing  about 
it,  anyway,  and  I  might  as  well  be 
guided  by  chance  as  anything  else,"  he 
reflected. 

He  was  a  trifle  ashamed  of  this  deci- 
sion, and  half  hoped  that  the  mules 
themselves  would  render  its  execution 
impossible,  by  all  laying  back  or  all 
pointing  their  ears  in  unison. 


84          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

When  he  entered  the  gate  of  the 
vacant  lot  where  the  sale  was  to  be  held, 
a  rough-haired,  forlorn-looking  speci- 
men of  a  mule  raised  two  weather-beaten 
ears  and  disconsolately  surveyed  him. 

"That  settles  it,"  said  Ben  to  him- 
self. "  After  all  it 's  something  to  have 
the  matter  decided  for  one." 

The  man  in  charge  was  anxious  to 
show  Ben  the  superior  animals  within 
the  inclosure ;  but  he  manifested  so  lit- 
tle interest  in  them  that  their  owner 
began  to  have  doubts  as  to  his  being  a 
bonafide  purchaser. 

"  Like  as  not  the  rest  will  all  go 
above  my  price,"  thought  Ben ;  "  but 
I  think  I  can  get  '  Despair '  —  "  for  so 
he  had  designated  the  mule  he  had  set- 
tled upon  —  "  for  fifteen." 

It  was  a  long  wait,  and  Ben  was  anx- 
ious to  return  to  the  Works ;  but  the 
owner  seemed  to  be  in  no  hurry  to 
begin,  and,  evidently,  was  waiting  for 
a  larger  audience. 


THE    MULE   AUCTION  85 

When  a  dozen  or  more  men  had 
arrived,  the  sale  was  opened.  It  was 
confusing,  the  way  in  which  the  auc- 
tioneer rattled  on,  discovering  invisible 
buyers  in  corners  and  on  the  outskirts 
of  the  crowd. 

Ben  wondered  how  he  should  be  able 
to  keep  his  head  when  his  time  should 
come  ;  and  he  realized  that  this  thought 
made  his  heart  beat  rapidly. 

He  witnessed  some  close  buying  that 
was  bewildering  to  the  inexperienced, 
and  he  saw  one  man  badly  kicked  by 
the  glossiest,  plumpest  mule  in  the  lot. 

"Another  mark  in  favor  of  c  De- 
spair/ "  Ben  noted.  "You  can't  tell 
anything  by  looks ;  but  I  don't  believe 
he'd  do  that." 

It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  before 
the  mule  which  Ben  had  selected  —  or, 
rather,  the  mule  which  had  selected 
Ben — was  offered. 

"  We  '11  start  him  at  —  What  '11  we 
start  him  at,  gentlemen  ?  " 


86          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  Five  dollars,"  said  a  voice. 

"  Five  dollars  !  "  The  auctioneer 
scornfully  repeated.  "Somebody  here 
expects  to  get  a  good  workin'  animal 
for  nothing  just  because  his  coat's  a 
little  rough.  Five  dollars  would  be 
just  a-givin'  him  away.  Why,  all  he 
needs  to  be  a  playmate  for  the  children 
is  a  clippin'  and  a  red  ribbon  tied  round 
his  tail.  What  am  I  bid,  bid,  bid — 
what  am  I  bid  ?  Ten  dollars,  young 
man,  did  you  say  ? "  He  pointed  to 
Ben,  and  the  latter  nodded. 

"  Here  's  a  young  gentleman  who 
knows  a  good  animal  for  the  saddle 
when  he  sees  one." 

This  sally  brought  a  laugh  from  the 
crowd  and  added  to  Ben's  discomfiture. 

"  Ten  dollars  !  Who  '11  raise  the  bid? 
Twelve  ? "  He  pointed  to  a  man  on 
the  edge  of  the  group.  "  Who  '11  give 
me  twelve  dollars  for  this  reliable  mule  ? 
Twelve  dollars  ? " 

"  Fifteen,"  said  Ben. 


THE    MULE   AUCTION  87 

A  smile  rippled  over  the  faces  of  the 
crowd,  and  Ben  became  painfully  con- 
scious that  he  had  made  an  error.  He 
could  feel  his  face  growing  uncomfort- 
ably warm. 

"  Fifteen  dollars  ! "  called  the  auc- 
tioneer. "Will  no  one  raise  it?  Is 
there  no  one  here  wants  this  mule  more 
than  this  young  gentleman  ?  Fifteen 
once — fifteen  twice — fifteen  three  times, 
and  sold  to — "  — he  turned  expect- 
antly toward  Ben,  —  "Mr.  — " 

"  Ralston,"  said  Ben. 

The  money  was  paid,  and  Ben  started 
for  the  Works  with  his  purchase. 

"  You  must  hev  wanted  that  mule 
powerful  bad,  young  feller,"  a  bystander 
remarked,  as  the  pair  issued  from  the 
gate. 

"  Think  so  ?  "  the  boy  replied,  anx- 
ious to  make  his  escape. 

"  Yes  —  it  rather  looks  as  though 
you  did.  To  wait  till  the  last  and 
worst-lookin'  mule  in  the  bunch  was 


88          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

offered,"  the  man  continued,  "and  then 
to  raise  your  own  bid  twice."  There 
was  a  laugh  from  the  crowd.  "  You 
could  hev  got  him  for  twelve  dollars, 
sure,  and  you  might  hev  got  him  for 
ten." 

"Well,  that's  my  affair,"  Ben  re- 
torted. 

He  led  the  mule  along  a  street  in 
the  direction  of  the  city,  not  without  a 
misgiving,  however,  as  to  the  docility 
of  the  animal.  A  fear  that  he  might 
balk  or  suddenly  whirl  and  kick,  to  the 
amusement  of  the  spectators,  made  Ben 
eager  to  increase  the  distance  between 
the  mule-market  and  himself. 

It  was  a  long  distance  from  the  Po- 
trero  to  North  Beach,  for  they  marked 
opposite  boundaries  of  the  city,  and 
Ben  had  ample  opportunity  for  reflec- 
tion. He  made  a  detour  and  skirted 
the  sea-wall,  in  order  to  avoid  the  more 
crowded  streets.  As  he  trudged  along, 
the  mule  seemed  docile  and  easily  led ; 


THE    MULE   AUCTION  89 

but  Ben  bought  some  carrots  from  a 
passing  vegetable-wagon,  to  make  assur- 
ance doubly  sure. 

He  regretted  that  he  had  yielded  to 
the  impulse  of  trusting  to  chance.  He 
was  conscious  that  the  act  was  unworthy 
and  degrading,  that  he  had  taken  a  step 
backward. 

"  If  I  'm  going  to  act  in  that  fool 
way,"  he  said  to  himself,  "  there  's  no 
telling  where  I  '11  land.  It's  as  bad  as 
the  things  Tom  Sawyer  did, —  worse, 
because  he  did  n't  trust  an  important 
piece  of  business  to  black  art.  It's 
just  the  kind  of  thing  that  the  lowest 
order  of  a  negro  would  be  capable  of. 
But  no  one  knows  it,"  he  added  with 
emphasis,  "  nor  ever  shall.  c  Despair ' 
and  I  can  keep  the  secret.  That 
name  won't  do  —  it  might  hoodoo  the 
scheme."  He  turned  and  reflectively 
surveyed  the  mule. 

"  You  've  got  to  have  a  name  that 's 
a  winner.  A  cheerful,  humming,  boom- 
ing sort  of  a  name,"  he  said. 


9° 


THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 


As  if  in  reply,  the  animal  raised  his 
long  ears  and  pointed  them  at  his  inter- 
locutor. 

When  they  reached  Montgomery 
Avenue,  where  Mr.  Hodges'  shop  was 
situated,  Ben  pulled  his  hat  over  his 
eyes.  He  endeavored  to  hasten  the 
pace  of  the  mule.  In  this  he  was  un- 
successful, but,  fortunately,  there  was 
no  one  in  sight  whom  he  knew. 

"  If  I  were  sure  of  success  I  would  n't 
mind  the  whole  town's  seeing  every 
move  I  make,"  the  boy  reflected.  "  But 
it  makes  a  heap  of  difference  in  people's 
opinions  whether  you  succeed  or  not. 
If  you  don't,  then,  you  're  looked  upon 
as  a  fool,  and  everything  you  've  done 
is  fool-business ;  but  if  you  do,  then, 
you  're  called  wise,  and  everything 
you  've  done  is  smart  as  lightning." 

They  reached  the  slight  rise  and  be- 
gan to  descend  toward  the  bay.  Out- 
lined against  the  vista  of  the  blue  water 
washing  the  base  of  the  Sausalito  hills, 
rose  the  massive  pillar  of  the  chimney. 


THE    MULE   AUCTION  91 

Ben  paused  an  instant  in  amazement. 
Mundon  had  been  true  to  his  word; 
for  reaching  from  the  top  to  the  bottom 
was  a  cable  that  looked  the  thickness 
of  a  thread  against  the  solid  round  bulk 
of  the  chimney. 

Ben  could  hardly  believe  his  eyes. 
How  had  it  been  accomplished  ? 

He  was  obliged  to  control  his  impa- 
tience until  the  mule's  deliberate  gait 
brought  them  at  length  to  the  Works. 

"  Mundon,  where  are  you ! "  Ben 
called  as  he  dashed  into  the  building. 

"Ahoy  there!"  A  voice  replied 
from  the  flue. 

Peering  up  the  mouth,  Ben  saw  Mun- 
don on  a  cross-piece  which  was  fastened 
by  two  lines  to  the  main  rope,  after  the 
manner  of  a  trapeze. 

"  I  '11  do  the  chippin',"  Mundon  re- 
marked from  his  perch,  about  twenty 
feet  from  the  ground.  "  Take  your 
head  away  a  minute  and  we  '11  drive  the 
first  blow." 


92          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

Ben  retreated  and  Mundon  struck 
the  chisel  he  held  a  blow  that  sent 
down  a  shower  of  soot,  broken  brick, 
and  mortar. 

"  We  '11  soon  know  now,"  Ben  said 
to  himself,  and  his  heart  beat  rapidly, 
when  he  thought  of  all  it  meant  to  him. 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA         93 
CHAPTER   VII 

BUILDING    THE    ARASTRA 

"I    JE  'VE  got  to  find  a  place  to  keep 

VY  the  mule.  It 's  too  cold  to  leave 
him  outside,"  said  Ben. 

"That's  easy,"  Mundon  replied. 
"  One  of  the  sheds  '11  do  first-rate. 
He'll  have  a  box-stall, —  same  as  a 
racer." 

"  I  '11  fix  it  up  for  him  right  now. 
He  looks  sort  of  forlorn,  tied  out  there 
in  the  fog,"  said  Ben. 

"  There 's  two  other  animals  we  ought 
to  find  quarters  for,  too." 

"  Two  others  ?  O,  you  mean  our- 
selves." 

"Yes.  With  all  this  room  goin'  to 
waste,  why  should  n't  we  get  our  room 
rent  free?" 

"That's  a  good  idea,  Mundon. 
We  '11  have  to  do  it,  or  hire  a  watch- 


94          THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

man,  as  soon  as  we  begin  to  work  the 
stuff.  We  might  as  well  get  used  to 
it  first  as  last." 

"  I  '11  build  the  room  for  us.  Over 
there  against  that  east  wall  will  be  a 
good  place  for  it." 

"Perhaps  there  won't  be  anything  to 
need  watching,"  Ben  said,  with  a  grim 
smile;  "but  we'll  soon  know  now.  " 

"There's  got  to  be  somethin'.  It 
ain't  in  reason  that  there  ain't  no  gold 
left  over  in  all  this  mess,"  emphatically 
replied  the  other. 

"Well,  we  '11  hope  so,  till  we  know 
to  the  contrary.  We  '11  have  to  have 
some  furniture,  I  suppose." 

"  Furniture  ? 

"Why,  a  couple  of  beds,  anyway." 

"  O,  I  '11  knock  up  a  couple  of 
bunks  that  '11  do  for  the  time  we  '11  be 
here.  I  can  make  first-rate  arm-chairs, 
too, —  reg'lar  sleepy  hollers, —  out  of 
those  barrels." 

"That'll  be  fine!     I  suppose  we'd 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA         95 

better  use  the  boards  out  of  that  first 
shed  ? " 

"  No ;  I  'd  put  the  mule  in  that  one. 
Then  he  'd  be  farther  away  from  our 
quarters.  I  'd  knock  down  the  second 
shed,  the  one  where  the  roof  is  half 
gone.  Found  a  name  yet  fur  your 
mule?" 

"I  Ve  named  him  'Alchemist/" 

"  'Alchymist '  ?  Don't  that  mean  turn- 
in*  no  'count  things  inter  gold?" 

"Yes." 

"Well,  that's  'propriate;  'cause  he '11 
work  the  'rastra.  Then,  we  kin  call  him 
'Alchy'  till  we  know  the  result;  and  if 
we  don't  get  anythin'  worth  mentionin' 
out  of  it  we  kin  call  him  c  Missed.' 
That  '11  be  'propriate,  too." 

"'Alchy'  goes,  then.  And  here's  to 
be  his  home.  I  think  I  '11  leave  one 
window  for  his  professorship.  We  '11 
separate  his  apartments  from  ours." 
He  struck  the  dilapidated  shed  a  blow 
as  he  spoke. 


96          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"'Twill  be  more  'ristocratic,"  ob- 
served Mundon.  "S'pose  I  start  the 
'rastra  while  you  're  doin'  that  ? J> 

"Wish  you  would.  Everything 
seems  unimportant — where  we  sleep 
or  where  the  mule  sleeps  —  compared 
to  the  real  business." 

"A  man  's  got  to  be  comfortable,  or 
he  can't  do  good  work.  This  here 's 
the  best  place  for  the  'rastra."  He  took 
several  long  steps  across  a  spot  in  the 
center  of  the  floor.  "  I  '11  level  this 
off  a  little,  so  to  have  the  floor  of  it 
even." 

"You  're  going  to  use  those  bricks  ? " 
Ben  pointed  to  some  bricks  which 
marked  the  location  of  the  furnaces. 

"  I  was  calculatin'  to.  But  first  we  've 
got  to  remember  that  we  've  got  to  have 
a  furnace,  too." 

"We  have?     What  for?" 

"Why,  we  've  got  to  melt  our  gold  — 
after  we  git  it." 

"O!     Well,   why    not   .leave    that 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA         97 

part  of  the  old  furnace  that 's  standing 
there?" 

"I  was  a-thinkin'  of  doin'  that. 
We'll  build  a  rough  chimney  on  the 
outside. " 

"  Then  we  '11  have  to  have  a  cru- 
cible." 

"  Yes ;  that 's  another  thing  I  was 
goin'  to  mention.  Ever  seen  it  done  — 
gold  melted  in  one  ? " 

"  Yes  ;  I  've  been  watching  them  do 
it  in  Smith's  assay  office." 

"  O,  you  have,  have  you  ? " 

"Yes.  And  the  other  day  I  went  to 
the  Mint  and  saw  a  lot.  Mr.  Hale, 
the  gentleman  I  met  at  the  Custom 
House,  gave  me  a  card.  It 's  funny, 
Mundon,  how  different  everything  there 
looked  to  me  from  the  last  time  I  was 
there.  Every  schoolboy  in  this  town 
goes,  and  of  course  I  went;  but  it 
did  n't  seem  to  me  that  I  could  be  the 
same  boy  who  'd  been  there.  Every- 
thing interested  me  so  much  more  this 


time." 


98          THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

Mundon  had  been  marking  a  circle 
in  the  center  of  the  floor. 

"  Now,  Ben,"  he  said,  "  we  're  ready 
for  the  corner-stone,  and  you  're  the 
proper  person  to  lay  it.  You  just  git 
one  of  those  bricks  and  put  it  here." 
He  struck  the  center  of  the  circle  a 
blow  with  his  spade. 

"  I  did  n't  know  you  could  corner  a 
circle,"  said  Ben,  as  he  placed  a  brick 
upon  the  spot  indicated. 

"  You  kin  corner  anythin',  if  you 
only  find  out  how  to  do  it.  There," 
he  added,  with  satisfaction,  "the  first 
brick  's  laid.  Now,  she  '11  go  a-hum- 
min' ! " 

"  Let  me  help  you,"  said  Ben.  "  It's 
more  interesting  than  building  the  mule- 
shed.  I  can  fix  that  by-and-by." 

"All  right." 

Mundon  watched  Ben  lay  the  bricks. 

"  How  clumsy  I  am ! "  the  latter 
exclaimed  when  the  bricks  refused  to 
lie  evenly.  "  I  've  often  watched  brick- 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA         99 

layers  at  work.  It  looks  as  easy  as 
breathing ;  but  it  is  n't, —  not  by  a  long 
sight!" 

"  It's  a  trade,"  Mundon  laconically 
remarked. 

"  Then  you  must  be  Jack  of  them 
all,"  said  Ben,  "  for  there  's  nothing  you 
can't  do." 

"I've  ben  in  most  of  'em.  It's 
mean  to  try  to  do  things  when  you 
don't  know  how.  Sometimes,  a  job  I 
was  n't  used  to  would  take  a  powerful 
long  time ;  though  in  the  first  stages,  I 
thought  I  was  workin'  mighty  fast  —  a 
reg'lar  lightnin'-  striker." 

"  Of  course,  anything  that  is  n't  reg- 
ular work  takes  longer." 

"  Exactly.  The  more  you  work 
at  a  thing,  the  more  skillful  you  git. 
Sometimes,  when  I  'd  git  through  with 
a  new  worrisome  job,  I  'd  wonder  what 
I  'd  better  tackle  next.  And  't  would 
always  remind  me  of  a  story  my  mother 
used  to  tell  'bout  a  tailor  who  was  a 


ioo        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

powerful  slow  worker,  but  thought  he 
was  lightnin'.  He  took  a  whole  week 
to  make  a  vest,  and  then  said,  4  What  '11 
I  fly  at  next ?'" 

During  the  following  two  weeks  the 
partners  were  very  busy.  The  arastra 
was  finished  and  the  furnace  in  readi- 
ness for  the  precious  metals.  Lastly,  a 
pile  of  soot,  brickdust,  and  mortar,  rep- 
resenting a  part  of  the  lining  of  the 
chimney,  and  a  retort  and  some  quick- 
silver awaited  the  trial. 

A  fairly  good  sleeping-room,  with  a 
tiny  galley  adjoining,  made  the  place 
comfortable. 

Mundbn  proved  to  be  a  good  cook, 
and  Ben  was  fond  of  watching  him  at 
his  culinary  labors.  The  kitchen  was 
constructed  like  the  galley  of  a  ship, 
and,  when  the  cook  was  seated,  every- 
thing was  within  his  reach. 

"  I  Ve  been  camping  out  in  vaca- 
tions," Ben  remarked ;  "  but  this  beats 
that  all  to  pieces," 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA       101 

"It's /cause  this  combines  business 
with  pleasure/*  Mundon  replied,  as  he 
neatly  cut  long  fingers  of  potato,  pre- 
paratory to  frying  them.  "  There 's 
twice  as  much  fun  to  be  had  in  doin' 
the  work  you  really  like  to  do  than 
there  is  in  anythin'  that 's  called  c  fun/  ' 

"  So  I  've  found  out," 

"  Fun  's  like  society.  When  it  hunts 
you, —  comes  of  it's  own  accord,  natural 
like, —  it 's  fine.  But  when  you  hunt 
it,  it  don't  amount  to  shucks." 

"  I  guess  you  're  about  right.  I 
know  I  've  never  enjoyed  anything  in 
my  life  as  I  have  this." 

"  'Cause  why  ?  'Cause  it 's  work  you 
like.  That 's  the  reason.  But  it  takes 
some  folks  a  lifetime  to  find  that  out ; 
and  even  then  they  don't  see  it." 

Ben  was  looking  at  the  pile  of  rubble 
as  if  fascinated. 

"  How  much  longer  before  we 
know?" 

"  It  won't  be  long  now,  I  reckon." 


102        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  O,  Mundon,  how  can  I  ever  wait!" 

On  the  following  morning  Mundon 
went  down-town  to  make  some  neces- 
sary purchases. 

"  I  heard  something  to-day,"  he  said, 
when  he  returned,  "  that  I  wish  I  'd 
known  in  the  beginnin'." 

"What's  that?"  inquired  Ben. 

"  Why,  you  see,  when  I  was  inquirin' 
'bout  the  price  of  quicksilver  I  run  up 
against  a  man  as  knew  all  about  this 
sort  of  thing  —  or  said  he  did.  'Course, 
I  did  n't  tell  him  our  plan ;  but  what 
he  says  is  needed  fur  it  is  a  jigger."  - 

"A  what?" 

"A  jigger  machine.  I  got  him  to 
describe  it,  and  I  think  I  've  got  enough 
idee  as  to  how  it 's  made  to  make  one 
myself.  He  'd  used  one,  up  in  Nevada, 
he  said." 

Mundon  extracted  a  piece  of  chalk 
from  his  pocket,  and  on  the  board  wall 
he  drew  a  plan  of  the  machine. 

"Your   jigger    is   a   box    made  of 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA       103 

wood/'  he  said.  "  Well,  really,  it's  a 
tank  —  six  foot  long  by  four  high. 
You  fill  it  with  water.  At  one  end 
you  have  a  tray  filled  with  dirt  and 
hung  from  a  pole  which  is  balanced  by 
a  weight  at  the  end.  T'  other  end  of 
the  pole  works  up  and  down,  like  the 
handle  of  a  bellus.  The  tray  is  dipped 
into  the  tank  and  all  the  loose  dirt  is 
washed  out  and  the  gold  sinks  to  the 
bottom.  That 's  the  coarse  gold ; 
you  've  got  to  ketch  the  fine  gold  on  a 
table  in  the  tank,  under  the  tray.  The 
waste  dirt  works  inter  the  fur  part  of 
the  tank.  This  man  says  —  and  he 
seems  ter  know  what  he  's  talkin'  about 
—  that  you  can't  git  the  val'able  par- 
ticles nohow,  without  a  jigger." 

"What  luck  you  were  in  to  meet 
him!" 

"  Was  n't  I,  though  !  I  believe  I  '11 
git  the  lumber, —  it  oughter  be  made 
out  of  new  lumber, —  and  knock  the 
thing  together  this  afternoon,"  Mun- 


104        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

don  replied,  as  he  walked  to  the  rear 
wall  of  the  building.  "  Say,  Ben,"  he 
remarked,  picking  up  a  little  of  the 
earth  from  the  floor  and  letting  it  sift 
through  his  fingers,  "  I  think  we  oughter 
locate  our  find  a  little  before  we  begin 
operations." 

"  What  do  you  mean  ? " 

"Why,  this  here  place  is  like  a  ruin 
deserted  by  the  folks  who  used  to  live 
here.  For  instance,"  he  pointed  to 
some  grass-covered  excavations,  "  these 
were  the  furnaces." 

"Well,"  said  Ben  thoughtfully, "then, 
if  they  followed  the  process  used  in  all 
smelting-works,  the  bullion  was  melted 
in  crucibles  and  cast  into  bars." 

"Exactly.  Then, jest  use  your  nat- 
ural sense  and  think  out  how  they  got 
the  bars  ter  the  bullion-room  ?  Why, 
they  piled  'em  on  hand-cars  and  run 
'em  on  a  track."  He  suddenly  knelt 
down  and  ran  his  hand  along  the  ground 
in  front  of  the  excavations.  "  Here  's 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA        105 

the  groove  where  the  track  was  laid, — 
sure  's  you  're  born  ! " 

Ben  dropped  beside  him.  "  There  is 
a  groove  ! "  he  cried.  "  We  're  regular 
detectives,  Mundon!" 

"It  couldn't  run  anywhere  else," 
the  other  said,  as  if  to  himself. 

"  Than  to  the  bullion-room  ?  Of 
course,  it  could  n't,  and  it  did  n't.  It 
ran  over  there,  did  n't  it?"  Ben  pointed 
to  the  opposite  wall. 

"Yes,"  said  Mundon,  "it  must. 
My  !  They  were  careless  in  those  days, 
if  this  was  like  any  smeltin'-works  ever 
I  see,  and  I  s'pose  it  was.  They  jest 
slung  the  stuff  'round  like  it  was  mud. 
They  always  counted  on  losin'  lots  of 
it  in  splashin'." 

"  I  should  think  so.  With  no  floor- 
ing in  the  furnace-rooms  and  all  this  dust 
being  trampled  into  the  earth  floor  year 
after  year,  I  should  think  they  'd  have 
lost  a  fortune  ! " 

"  Mebbe  they  did." 


io6        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  We  hope  so  ;  for  they  made  enough 
as  it  was." 

"You  see,  sometimes  a  furnace  would 
get  ter  leakin'.  Well,  mebbe  'twould 
be  quite  a  while  before  anybody  found 
it  out.  Then,  p'raps  they  'd  run  tons 
of  base  bullion  inter  a  trench,  thinkin' 
they  'd  go  over  the  ground  when  they 
got  time.  Um  —  Well,  sometimes 
they  never  got  the  time,  they  was 
so  busy  makin'  money.  We  must  look 
'round,  some  time,  fur  traces  of  a  trench 
of  that  sort." 

"  I  've  got  an  idea,"  said  Ben,  "  that 
it  would  be  a  good  plan  to  wash  the 
soil  here  and  there  with  an  ordinary 
gold-pan.  We  could  tell  something,  I 
should  think,  about  where  the  richest 
dirt  lay  then." 

"'T  would  n't  do  no  harm.  But  the 
richest  dirt  is  bound  ter  be  near  the  fur- 
naces and  in  the  bullion-room.  We  '11 
finish  with  the  chimney  first,  'cause  if 
there  are  any  nuggets  they  '11  be  there." 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA       107 

"  Would  n't  any  tin  pan  do  ?" 

"O,  you  better  have  the  real  thing. 
I  see  one  a-hangin'  up  outside  of  a 
junk-shop  on  Stockton  Street  that  I  '11 
git  when  I  go  to  git  the  lumber.  Mebbe 
it  might  be  a  relic  of  '49,  and  give  you 
some  of  the  spirit  of  those  days.  Not 
that  you  ain't  got  the  true  minin'  spirit 
already,"  he  added,  with  a  glance  at 
Ben's  eager  face. 

On  the  following  day  the  pan  was 
purchased,  and  Ben  was  initiated,  and 
became  for  the  first  time  a  real  miner. 
He  scooped  some  dirt  from  what  was 
thought  to  be  a  favorable  spot,  put  it 
in  the  pan,  and  poured  some  water 
upon  it. 

Mundon  showed  him  how  to  shake 
the  pan  from  side  to  side,  allowing  a 
little  water  to  flow  constantly  from  the 
top,  until  a  small  amount  of  very  ordi- 
nary-looking dirt  remained  in  the  bot- 
tom. It  was  exhilarating  to  think  of 
what  it  might  contain. 


io8        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  It  looks  exactly  like  the  mud  pies 
my  mother's  boy  used  to  make,"  said 
Ben  with  an  anxious  air. 

"  There  's  a  little  color  there,  or  I  'm 
mistaken,"  Mundon  wisely  remarked,  as 
he  scanned  the  sediment. 

"  Yellow  's  the  color  I  'm  looking 
for." 

"  Well,  there  's  some  yellow  in  that. 
Hold  it  up  to  the  light.  Now,  it  does 
shine  !  I  '11  be  hanged  if  it  don't !  " 

"  Goodness  knows,  I  want  to  see  it 
as  much  as  any  one  !  "  said  Ben ;  "  but 
I  'm  afraid  this  is  too  much  like  imagi- 
nation. It  reminds  me  of  the  time 
people  thought  they  saw  flying-machines 
in  the  sky." 

Mundon  shook  his  head.  "  I  ain't 
that  kind,"  he  remarked,  as  he  returned 
to  his  work  of  constructing  the  "jig- 
ger." "After  all,"  he  continued,  "you 
can't  tell  much  about  it  till  you  make 
the  'speriment  in  the  proper  way.  This 
machine  '11  settle  it  one  way  or  the 
other." 


BUILDING    THE   ARASTRA        109 

He  worked  rapidly  and  skillfully, 
and  by  the  following  night  the  "jigger" 
was  completed. 

"  My !  "  he  exclaimed  as  he  drove  the 
last  nails.  "  It  was  luck,  blind  luck, 
my  meetin'  that  feller  and  his  tellin'  me 
jest  exactly  what  I  wanted  to  know! " 

"  One  thing  will  be  very  funny," 
said  Ben.  "  I  was  just  thinking  that 
"  we  '11  have  to  ship  our  bullion  — when 
we  get  it  —  up  to  the  Searby  Smelting 
Works  at  Vallejo  to  be  resmelted  and 
cast  into  bars.  They  were  the  original 
owners  of  it." 

„  "  Funny  enough  for  us,"  Mundon 
replied.  "  But  I  don't  count  on  ship- 
pin*  'em  any." 

"  How '11  we  get  it  into  bars  ?  " 

"  I  '11  git  it  into  bars,  myself.  You 
did  n't  know  that  I  was  an  assayer,  too, 
did  you  ? " 

"No,"  Ben  thoughtfully  replied. 
"  I  think  I  Ve  found  my  trade  at  last. 
Mundon,  if  I  Ve  got  brains  enough  I  '11 
be  an  assayer." 


no        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  Why  not  a  mining  engineer  ? 
Might  as  well  aim  fur  the  highest  while 
you  're  about  it." 

"That's  so.  But  that  takes  more 
money.  If  I  get  enough  out  of  this, 
I  '11  try  for  it." 


GOLD   IN  THE   "JIGGER"       i 


CHAPTER  VIII 

GOLD    IN    THE    " JIGGER " 

"IT'S    nearly  time    for   us   to   know 

1  'bout  where  we  stand,"  remarked 
Mundon,  as  he  flung  several  shovelfuls 
of  mortar,  brickdust,  and  soot  into  the 
"jigger."  He  then  added  some  quick- 
silver to  the  mass.  "  There,  I  guess 
that  '11  do  fur  this  time.  Now,  we  '11 
churn  the  cream  and  see  if  we  kin  git 
any  butter." 

"  Perhaps  it  is  n't  cream,"  Ben  sug- 
gested, more  to  hear  Mundon  reassure 
him  than  anything  else. 

"  No  ;  p'raps  it  ain't, —  p'raps  it 's 
only  skim  milk.  Well,  in  that  case  we 
won't  git  any  butter.  But  I  'm  a-bet- 
tin'  on  it 's  bein'  cream." 

When  Mundon  took  some  of  the 
amalgam  from  the  dirty  water  and 
washed  it  clean,  Ben  knew  that  the 
time  of  reckoning  had  arrived. 


H2        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"Ain't  feelin'  faint,  are  you,  Ben  ?  " 
Mundon  facetiously  inquired.  "I  orter 
brought  some  smellin'-  salts  along. 
Well,  I  've  got  a  ticklish  sort  of  feelin' 
myself." 

He  placed  the  amalgam  in  a  piece 
of  buckskin.  This  he  squeezed  until 
the  larger  part  of  the  quicksilver  had 
been  pressed  through  the  skin. 

He  did  not  tell  Ben,  but  he  knew 
from  long  experience  that  the  result  was 
satisfactory.  Ben  read  his  thoughts  in 
his  face. 

"  Tell  me  it 's  all  right,  Mundon  !  I 
can  see  by  your  face  that  it  is,  but  I  'd 
like  to  hear  you  say  it !  Tell  me  !  " 

"  There 's  gold  in  this  ball  —  or  I  'm 
not  alive,"  the  other  replied. 

"  Wo-o-w ! "  Ben  flung  his  cap 
among  the  rafters,  and,  seizing  the  ball 
of  amalgam,  he  sent  it  after  the  cap. 

"  Here,  young  feller,  don't  you  go 
plumb  crazy !  That 's  heavy !  Want 
ter  kill  us  ?  Give  me  that  ball  —  I 
ain't  through  with  it  yet." 


GOLD    IN  THE   "JIGGER"        113 

Ben  returned  the  ball.  "  I  had  to 
let  off  steam  or  bust !  "  he  said. 

"  Now,  we  '11  see  what  we  '11  see," 
said  Mundon,  as  he  repeated  the  pro- 
cess he  had  followed  with  the  first 
handful  of  amalgam,  until  he  had 
three  good-sized  lumps. 

"  The  gold  's  inside  of  them?  "  Ben 
asked. 

"'Course  it  is, —  that  is,  we  Ve  rea- 
son to  s'pose  so." 

"  How  ever  are  we  going  to  get  it 
out !  I  say,  Mundon,  I  'd  have  made 
a  pretty  fizzle  of  this  business  without 
you." 

"  You  'd  have  had  to  found  some- 
body else,  that 's  all,"  Mundon  mod- 
estly replied. 

"  Next,  I  take  the  retort, —  see  that 
it 's  cold, —  and  chalk  it  well.  Watch 
me,  Ben, —  most  anybody  can  set  an 
egg  on  end  after  they  Ve  seen  it  done. 
Next,  I  wrap  these  here  baseballs  — 
base  is  good  !  —  in  paper  and  put  'em  in 


n4        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

the  retort, —  so.  Then  I  jam  the  cover 
down  tight.  Now,  give  me  a  lift,  Ben. 
This  here 's  pretty  heavy,  I  reckon." 

The  retort  did  not  seem  heavy  to 
Ben  as  they  lifted  it  to  the  furnace ; 
and  he  concluded  that  Mundon  had 
asked  him  to  help  him,  in  order  that 
he  might  feel  that  he  was  more  than  a 
spectator. 

"  He  's  got  the  finest  feelings,"  Ben 
said  to  himself.  "  He  's  always  trying 
to  make  a  fellow  feel  comfortable." 

They  built  a  roaring  fire  in  the  fur- 
nace. 

"  Now,  you  kin  tend  that  fire  fur  two 
hours,  Ben,"  said  Mundon,  "  while  I  go 
down-town  and  see  'bout  gittin'  some 
more  coal  and  a  few  little  things  we 
need.  I  '11  be  right  back.  Don't  for- 
get —  you  got  to  keep  that  there  retort 
red-hot  the  whole  time." 

"  Yes,  yes.  And  then  what  do  we 
do?" 

"  Well,  you  got  to   keep  the  retort 


GOLD   IN  THE   "JIGGER"        115 

red-hot  for  two  hours,  as  I  told  you,  just 
a  dull  red-hot;  but  at  the  last  you  pile 
on  the  coal  till  it 's  a  reel  cherry-red." 

"And  after  that  ?  " 

"  O,  I  '11  be  here  to  show  you  what 
to  do  afterwards." 

During  the  following  two  hours  Ben 
watched  the  furnace  and  plied  it  with 
coal.  A  rap  on  the  doors  attracted  his 
attention,  and  he  admitted  Beth  and 
little  Sue. 

"  Mother  asked  us  to  tell  her  when 
you  got  the  first  gold  from  your  Gol- 
conda.  Have  you  got  any  yet  ?  "  Sue 
asked.  "  I  know  what  that  means,  too, 
for  Beth  told  me  the  story." 

"  Not  yet,  Sue,"  Ben  replied. 
"  Maybe  you  're  just  in  time  to  see 
some,  though.  We  're  nearly  ready  to 
open  the  retort."  He  flung  in  a 
shovelful  of  coal.  "  I  'm  glad  you 
came  down,  Beth,  to  see  it ;  for  if  we 
get  any  it'll  be  the  result  of  your 
idea." 


n6        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  Nonsense,  Ben  !  O,  Sue,"  she  ex- 
claimed as  she  looked  up  the  long  fun- 
nel of  the  chimney  to  where  it  pierced 
the  blue  sky,  "  think  of  any  one's  sit- 
ting on  those  little  sticks  and  being 
hoisted  up  that  frightful  distance  !  It 
makes  me  dizzy  to  think  of  it.  How 
did  you  ever  get  the  rope  over  the 
top  ?  "  she  inquired  of  Ben. 

"  Mundon  did  it,"  Ben  explained, 
"  one  day,  when  he  sent  me  off  to  buy 
the  mule." 

"  Did  he  climb  up  on  the  outside  ? " 

"  No,  goosey ;  of  course  not.  He 
built  a  rough  scaffolding  inside,  some- 
how, as  he  went  along,  until  he  could 
throw  a  rope  over  the  top.  The  rest 
was  easy." 

"And  is  he  going  to  chip  off  the 
whole  inside  ?  O-o-h !  How  can  he 
bear  to  sit  on  that  thing  and  let  you 
haul  him  to  the  top  ?  " 

"  O,  he  does  n't  mind  it ;  he  's  been 
a  sailor.  He  says  it 's  safer  than  lots 


GOLD   IN  THE   « JIGGER  "       117 

of  high  places  he 's  been  in,  because 
there  's  no  wind." 

So  interested  had  all  three  been  in 
peering  up  the  chimney  that  they  had 
not  noticed  the  entrance  of  several  men 
who  were  curiously  inspecting  the  in- 
terior. 

Sydney  Chalmers  was  one  of  them ; 
and  while  Ben  was  annoyed  by  his 
presence  at  this  particular  time,  he  did 
not  like  to  ask  him  to  leave. 

Syd  walked  about  with  a  supercilious 
stare  which  so  irritated  Ben  that  he  re- 
lieved his  feelings  by  flinging  shovelfuls 
of  coal  into  the  furnace. 

The  two  hours  were  nearly  up,  and 
Mundon  must  soon  return. 

One  of  the  self-invited  visitors  proved 
to  be  a  reporter  who  walked  about, 
notebook  in  hand,  scanning  the  sur- 
roundings. 

When  Mundon  returned,  Ben  sug- 
gested that  the  strangers  be  asked  to 
leave ;  but  Mundon  did  not  approve 
of  this. 


n8        THE    GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  It  never  did  anybody  any  harm  to 
be  on  the  good  side  of  the  newspapers, 
and  it  gen'rally  does  a  body  heaps  of 
harm  to  be  on  the  bad  side  of  'em,"  he 
sagely  remarked.  "  Let  him  get  his 
scoop.  That's  a  real  cherry-red,''  he 
added  as  he  looked  at  the  retort.  "  Give 
us  a  hand,  Ben." 

They  lifted  the  retort  from  the  fur- 
nace. 

"  It 's  got  to  chill  now,"  said  Mun- 
don,  and  he  turned  his  attention  to  the 
reporter,  whom  he  regaled  with  such 
Munchausen  tales  that  that  experienced 
gentleman  had  hard  work  to  separate 
fiction  from  fact. 

"  S'pose  you  think  your  fortune 's 
in  sight  ?  "  Syd  contemptuously  looked 
at  the  retort. 

"  I  hope  so,  Syd  ;  and  I  know  all  my 
friends  do,  too,"  Ben  replied. 

"  Hoping 's  cheap." 

Ben  turned  away.  "  Is  n't  it  cool 
enough  yet  ?  "  he  called  to  Mundon. 


GOLD   IN  THE   "JIGGER"       119 

"  Reckon  it  is,"  said  Mundon.  "Now, 
when  I  knock  off  the  cover,  we  got  to 
jump  back  quick  as  lightnin'.  The 
fumes  of  quicksilver 's  deadly,  you 
know." 

"All  right.  Knock  her  off!"  Ben 
responded. 

"  You  folks  better  stand  well  back," 
Mundon  said  to  the  others. 

He  struck  the  cover  a  few  hard 
blows,  and  as  it  flew  off  they  sprang 
back  to  a  place  of  safety. 

"  Whew  !  This  is  being  an  alchem- 
ist with  a  vengeance  !  Fancy  our  turn- 
ing that  old  rubble  into  gold  !  "  Ben  said 
to  Mundon,  who  was  holding  him  by 
the  arm.  "  O,  I  say,  is  n't  it  time  to 
see,  now  ? " 

"  I  guess  so.     Come  along." 

Visitors  and  workmen  eagerly  crowded 
around  the  retort.  A  little  sponge  of 
gold  was  all  that  remained  in  it. 

Mundon  took  it  out  and  weighed  it 
while  the  others  curiously  watched  him. 


izo        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

Ben  was  visibly  horribly  disappointed. 
He  had  a  sickening  conviction  that  the 
whole  thing  was  a  failure.  He  could 
read  the  triumph  in  Syd's  face,  and  it 
cost  him  an  effort  to  put  on  a  bold 
front  and  see  them  all  through  the 
gates. 

"  It's  no  go,  I  'm  afraid,"  he  whispered 
to  Beth.  For  answer  she  pressed  his 
hand.  He  closed  the  gates  and  turned 
to  Mundon. 

"Well, — it 's  a  failure.  You  need  n't 
tell  me  —  I  know  it." 

"  Failure  ?     No,  't  ain't  a  failure." 

"Are  you  saying  that  to  let  me  down 
easy?" 

"  Before  God,  I  ain't !  Why,  boy, 
what  you  got  tears  in  your  eyes  fur? 
Brace  up  and  be  a  man  !  " 

"  I  'm  trying  to,  Mundon."  Ben's 
voice  shook. 

"  I  dunno  what 's  this  all  about  ? 
Did  you  expect  that  there  crucible  'd 
be  half-full  of  gold?  Mebbe  you 


GOLD   IN  THE   "JIGGER"        121 

thought 't  would  be  plumb  full."  There 
was  no  reply.  "  Why,  on  a  rough  cal- 
culation, I  reckon  this  undertaken'  's 
goin*  to  come  out  all  right." 

"  You  mean  that  it  's  going  to 
pay?" 

"  'Course  I  do.    What  ails  you  ?  " 

"  It  seems  such  a  small  quantity," 
Ben  faltered. 

"It'll  seem  smaller  yet,  when  it's 
cast  in  a  bar.  I  've  got  to  melt  this 
again  to  git  it  into  shape.  Besides,  I 
reckon  'bout  half  of  it 's  silver." 

"  Silver  !  And  silver 's  worth  only 
fifty  cents  an  ounce  !  "  Ben  sat  down 
on  some  lumber  and  gloomily  watched 
Mundon  melt  the  gold  in  a  crucible. 

"Yes,  so  'tis;  but  gold's  worth 
twenty  dollars  an  ounce.  Did  n't  ex- 
pect 't  would  be  all  gold,  did  you  ? 
I  'm  a-figurin'  roughly  on  the  tons  of 
stuff  you  've  got  in  sight  and  the 
amount  of  gold  you  've  got  out  of  one 
jiggerful,  and  —  you've  got  a  good 


122        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

thing  all  right,  Ben.  But  you  're  just 
like  all  kids, —  beggin'  pardon, —  on- 
reasonable." 


THE    MYSTERIOUS    CHINESE     123 


CHAPTER  IX 

THE    MYSTERIOUS    CHINESE 

ON  the  night  following  the  first 
clean-up,  Ben  was  awakened  about 
midnight.  He  had  been  sleeping  so 
heavily  that  for  some  minutes  after 
awakening  he  did  not  realize  where  he 
was.  Then  the  outlines  of  the  rough 
walls  of  the  room  and  the  regular 
breathing  of  Mundon  recalled  him  to 
his  surroundings.  He  was  too  wide- 
awake to  sleep  again,  and  he  reviewed 
the  events  of  the  day,  and  then  fell  to 
speculating  upon  the  plans  for  the  mor- 
row. 

Suddenly  he  sat  bolt  upright,  every 
faculty  alert.  There  was  a  sound  of, 
stealthy  footsteps  in  the  outer  room. 

Ben  knew  now  the  cause  of  his  sud- 
den awakening.  Some  one  had  entered 
the  building,  and  was  creeping  about 


i24        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

searching  for  —  what  ?  "  The  gold  !  " 
he  instantly  replied  to  the  question. 

Ben  knew  that  Mundon  had  placed 
the  gold  in  a  box  underneath  his  bunk. 
There  was  so  little  of  it  as  yet  that  this 
had  been  thought  to  be  a  sufficiently 
safe  place. 

Should  he  awaken  Mundon  ?  It 
hardly  seemed  necessary.  He  crept 
from  his  bed  and  crossed  the  room  to 
the  door.  The  stealthy  footsteps  could 
be  heard  at  intervals,  as  though  the 
person  constantly  paused  to  listen. 
The  noise  appeared  to  come  from  the 
corner  of  the  building  in  which  the 
"jigger"  was  situated;  and  Ben  con- 
cluded that  the  man  was  searching  there 
for  the  gold.  Feeling  that  he  could 
keep  quiet  no  longer,  Ben  grasped 
Mundon's  arm. 

"Hush!"  he  whispered.  "Don't 
speak  !  Some  one  's  out  there  —  look- 
ing for  the  gold  !  " 

Mundon  was  thoroughly  awake  in  an 


THE   MYSTERIOUS    CHINESE     125 

instant.  Together  they  crept  to  the 
door.  The  noise  suddenly  ceased,  and 
there  followed  a  long  interval  of  silence. 

"  I  'm  afraid  we  Ve  frightened  him 
off,"  whispered  Mundon. 

Just  then  a  slight  sound  told  them 
that  the  burglar  was  still  there.  A 
flash  of  light  through  the  cracks  of  the 
door  told  them  that  he  carried  a  dark 
lantern. 

"Be  ready!"  Mundon  directed. 
"  I  '11  unlock  the  door  and  we  '11  rush 
for  the  gates!  " 

He  unlocked  the  door  and  the  part- 
ners tore  across  the  rough  floor  to  the 
gates.  They  were  somewhat  surprised 
to  find  them  locked. 

"  Who  's  there  ?  Stop,  or  I  '11  fire  !  " 
cried  Ben. 

They  listened,  trying  to  locate  the 
intruder  in  the  darkness  ;  but  the  silence 
following  this  challenge  remained  un- 
broken. 

"  He  must  hev  run  up  the  beach  to 


iz6        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

climb  the  bulkhead,"  said  Mundon. 
"  I  '11  go  out  and  head  him  off.  You 
stay  here  and  watch.  If  he  's  hidin' 
here,  and  makes  a  sound,  you  call 
me." 

Left  alone  in  the  darkness,  Ben  fan- 
cied several  times  that  he  heard  the 
burglar  moving  in  the  black  shadows 
of  the  interior.  But  a  careful  investi- 
gation, with  the  aid  of  a  lantern  when 
Mundon  returned,  proved  that  the  place 
was  empty. 

"  I  don't  see  how  he  could  hev  got 
over  that  bulkhead  so  quick,"  Mundon 
remarked,  as  he  related  his  unsuccessful 
attempt  to  capture  the  man.  "  Must 
hev  ben  mighty  lively,  and  an  acrobat  in 
the  bargain,  to  git  out  of  sight  in  that 
time.  Let 's  see  what  mischief  he  's 
ben  up  to." 

The  "jigger"  was  undisturbed,  but 
they  found  footprints  in  the  moist 
ground  near  the  furnace. 

"  Mebbe  he  came  in  a  boat,"  Mun- 


THE    MYSTERIOUS    CHINESE     127 

don  suddenly  suggested.  "  Mebbe  he 
was  n't  after  our  gold  at  all." 

Ben  stared  in  surprise.  "Not  after 
the  gold  ! "  he  exclaimed.  "Then  what 
in  thunder  was  he  after  ? " 

"  Can't  you  guess  ?" 

"No." 

"Well,  I  was  thinkin'  that  mebbe 
there  's  more  opium  hidden  away  here 
'that  we  ain't  found." 

"Opium!" 

"  Well,  we  found  one  lot  here.  Why 
should  n't  we  find  some  more.  Who  's 
to  say  that  we  found  all  there  was  stowed 
here?" 

"They  would  have  taken  it  away  be- 
fore this." 

"How  could  they?  They  didn't 
dare  come  back  while  there  was  a  chance 
of  them  Custom  House  fellers  bein' 
'round.  And  lately  we  have  n't  let  this 
place  out  our  sight." 

"That's  so,"  replied  Ben.  "You 
think  there  's  more  opium  hidden  some- 
where round  this  furnace?" 


iz8        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"That 'sit/' 

"Well,  1*11  take  out  those  loose 
bricks  in  the  morning — those  on  the 
side  next  the  water,  that  we  didn't 
touch." 

In  the  morning  a  thorough  search 
was  made,  but  no  opium  was  found. 
No  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  pres- 
ence of  the  midnight  visitor  offered 
itself,  but  matters  of  greater  importance 
soon  occupied  the  thoughts  of  the 
partners. 

News  of  the  venture  spread.  The 
scoop  was  read  by  thousands,  and  many 
of  the  curiously  inclined  were  attracted 
to  the  spot. 

On  the  second  day  the  crowd  was  so 
large  that  Ben  was  compelled  to  close 
the  gates.  There  were  several  report- 
ers, who  took  notes,  photographed 
Ben  and  the  interior  of  the  building, 
and  interviewed  the  partners  as  to  their 
enterprise. 


THE   MYSTERIOUS   CHINESE     129 

Although  Ben  was  feeling  better,  he 
was  not  entirely  at  ease.  The  whole 
thing  seemed  so  theatrical.  It  was  like 
working  on  the  stage  of  a  theater.  Be- 
sides, he  was  not  yet  assured  of  success. 

While  the  presence  of  spectators  was 
flattering,  it  was  rather  embarrassing  to 
the  workmen.  They  would  have  pre- 
ferred to  have  made  their  clean-up 
without  an  audience.  Skepticism,  along 
with  curiosity,  was  written  on  the  faces 
of  all.  And,  like  all  sensation-seekers, 
they  withheld  any  decided  opinion  until 
the  result  should  be  known. 

In  imagination  Ben  could  already 
hear  the  jeering  laughter  of  the  crowd 
over  his  failure,  and  this  added  to  his 
nervousness.  His  cheeks  were  flushed 
with  excitement,  and  he  stole  over  to 
where  Beth  and  little  Sue  were  standing 
and  said  in  an  anxious  whisper,  "  It 's 
just  awful  not  to  know  how  it 's  going 
to  pan  out ! " 

When  at  length  the  crucial  moment 


1 3o        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

arrived,  and  he  saw  Mundon  scoop  up 
some  particles  of  yellow  metal  with  one 
hand  while  with  the  other  he  waved  his 
hat,  everything  seemed  to  swim  before 
Ben's  eyes. 

The  crowd  gave  a  hearty  cheer,  in 
which  he  joined  as  if  in  a  dream. 

It  was  pleasant  to  be  congratulated ; 
and  it  must  be  confessed  that  the  boy 
miner  enjoyed  being  looked  upon  as  a 
marvel  of  enterprise. 

Old  Madge  appeared  to  be  wonder- 
fully interested  in  the  proceedings ;  and 
Ben  did  not  quite  like  the  expression 
of  his  countenance  when  he  looked 
upon  the  gold.  Neither  did  he  like  a 
look  of  envy  which  could  be  seen  upon 
the  faces  of  some  others. 

"Can't  please  everybody,"  Ben  said 
to  himself,  with  a  shrug.  "  Some  peo- 
ple never  like  to  see  any  one  else  suc- 
ceed." 

The  rest  of  it  was  pleasant  enough. 
There  was  a  sort  of  Fourth-of-July 


THE    MYSTERIOUS    CHINESE     131 

excitement  about  it  that  was  most  exhil- 
arating. 

After  the  last  hanger-on  had  gone 
and  the  gates  were  shut  for  the  night, 
Mundon  remarked  that  he  would  go 
down-town  to  get  a  new  fitting  that 
was  needed. 

"  We  got  twice  as  much  gold  to-day  as 
we  did  yesterday,"  he  said  as  he  turned 
to  go.  "  Mebbe  we  '11  get  twice  as  much 
as  this  to-morrer  —  it 's  bound  to  vary. 
But,  anyway,  we  're  all  right.  Well,  so 
long !  I  '11  be  back  inside  of  an  hour." 

"So  long!"  Ben  replied. 

Left  alone  on  the  scene  of  his  tri- 
umph, Ben  surveyed  the  mass  of  rub- 
bish and  endeavored  to  estimate  how 
much  it  would  yield. 

He  had  supposed  himself  to  be  alone, 
and  was  surprised  to  see  a  Chinaman 
standing  in  the  opening  above  the  little 
strip  of  beach. 

"What  do  you  want  here?"  Ben  de- 
manded. 


1 32        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"I  come  to  see  you  on  business,"  the 
man  replied  in  excellent  English. 

"  How  'd  you  get  here  ?  " 

"  O,  I  come  in  when  other  people 
come ;  and  I  wait  till  your  partner  go, 
because  I  want  to  see  you  alone." 

With  a  quick  motion  of  his  arm  the 
man  threw  back  one  of  his  voluminous 
sleeves  and  pointed  with  his  claw-like 
fingers  to  the  roof  and  walls.  Ben 
noted  that  his  dress  marked  him  as  a 
member  of  the  ordinary  merchant  class 
of  Chinese. 

"You  work  with  the  bricks  and  dirt," 
he  said,  pointing  to  the  piles  of  rubbish. 
"What  you  intend  to  do  with  build- 
ing?" 

Ben's  suspicions  were  aroused.  "  He 
wants  to  drive  some  bargain  with  me 
about  that  opium  business,"  he  thought. 

"  O,  I  11  sell  it  for  lumber  to  some 
builder,  I  guess,"  he  indifferently  re- 
plied. 

"  Not  worth  very  much." 


THE    MYSTERIOUS   CHINESE     133 

"No;  not  very  much." 

"  I  notice  you  have  plenty  of  room 
here ;  so  I  think  perhaps  you  like  to 
rent  this  place  to  me  to  store  my  goods." 
He  darted  one  of  his  capacious  sleeves 
inside  his  blouse  and  drew  forth  a  card, 
which  he  handed  to  Ben. 

"I  give  you  my  card." 

Ben  glanced  at  the  card.  "  Ng  Quong 
Leey  Fruitpacker ;  Factory,  792  Jackson 
Street"  it  read. 

"  I  shall  be  here  for  only  a  short  time," 
Ben  said.  "The  lease  of  this  building 
expires  in  a  few  months.  Besides,  you 
couldn't  store  anything  here;  there  are 
too  many  holes  in  the  walls  and  roofs." 

"  O,  that  would  n't  matter, — my  goods 
are  canned.  My  factory  too  crowded 
at  this  time  of  year.  Fruit  season  now, 
you  know.  For  a  few  months  I  like 
to  rent  another  place." 

"  I  'm  sorry  I  can't  accommodate  you," 
Ben  said,  turning  away,  "  but  I  need  all 
the  place  myself." 


134        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  I  give  you  thirty  dollars  a  month/* 
the  Chinese  said,  with  a  shrewd  glance. 

This  offer  increased  Ben's  suspicion, 
and  he  flatly  refused  to  consider  it. 

"You  make  too  much  money,"  the 
other  said  in  conclusion.  "You  too 
rich,  I  think.  Well,  I  leave  my  card. 
Perhaps  some  time  you  come  to  see  me. 
Some  time,"  he  looked  Ben  squarely  in 
the  face,  "  if  Mr.  Fish  make  you  trou- 
ble, you  come  to  see  me."  With  which 
enigmatical  remark  he  politely  bowed 
and  took  his  departure. 

"I  wonder  what  he  was  after  and 
what  he  meant  by  that  last  ? "  Ben 
reflected,  when  he  had  fastened  the 
gates  after  his  strange  visitor.  "  There 's 
something  wrong  about  it,  or  he  would 
n't  offer  me  thirty  dollars  a  month  for 
a  part  of  this  crazy  old  shed.  He  '11 
wait  a  long  time,  I  'm  thinking,  before 
he  receives  a  call  from  me." 

After  thinking  the  matter  over,  Ben 
concluded  not  to  mention  it  to  Mun- 


THE   MYSTERIOUS   CHINESE     135 

don.  He  was  afraid  he  might  urge 
him  to  accept  it,  and  this  he  did  not 
wish  to  do. 


136        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 


CHAPTER  X 

WORK    STOPPED 

THE  next  morning  Ben  saw  a  picture 
of  himself  above  the  title  "  Our 
Boy  Miner/'  in  one  of  the  daily  papers. 
He  felt  the  sensationalism  of  it,  but  he 
could  not  deny  that  it  pleased  him. 

"Publicity  was  the  penalty  one  had 
to  pay  for  being  prominent,"  he  told 
himself.  And  the  thought  pulled  him 
very  erect,  like  a  balloon  tugging  at  his 
neckband. 

He  was  elated  with  success.  All 
doubts  which  he  had  previously  felt 
about  speculation  being  a  hazardous 
way  of  making  money  vanished  like 
mists  before  the  sun.  The  warnings  he 
had  heard  all  his  life  from  the  wiseacres 
about  the  slow  way  being  the  sure  way 
he  now  felt  to  be  all  nonsense.  Indeed, 
so  egotistical  is  success,  that  he  even 


Photo  by  Arnold  Genthe. 


"Our  Boy  Miner.''1 


WORK   STOPPED  137 

wondered  that  he  could  ever  have  felt 
any  doubts. 

"  After  I  've  made  my  fortune,  I  '11 
be  oJd-fogyish  and  save  the  cents,"  he 
reflected.  "  This  mining  venture  is 
quite  as  sure  a  way  of  making  money 
as  clerking  in  a  store  —  and  much  more 
rapid."  His  attention  was  attracted  by 
something  Mundon  was  saying  to  a 
reporter  who  was  making  a  i(  story  "  of 
their  experience. 

"O,  'taint  no  trouble  to  show  you 
our  operations,"  Mundon  remarked ; 
"no  trouble  at  all.  If  'twas  a  real 
mine  underground  that  'd  be  another 
thing.  Folks  was  so  curious  'bout  a 
mine  I  once  had  up  in  Placer  County 
that  I  trained  a  dog  I  had  to  show  'em 
'round.  I  'd  fasten  a  candle  to  a  strap 
that  went  'round  his  forehead  and  he  'd 
take  'em  all  over  that  mine.  Got  so 
knowin'  at  last  that  when  he  'd  pass  any 
rich  ore  he  'd  stop  and  bark.  Sure  !  " 
He  added,  as  the  hearer's  smile  pro- 


138        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

claimed  his  incredulity,  "  You  kin  put 
that  in  your  paper,  and  I  '11  vouch 
for  it." 

"  I  wish  Mundon  would  n't  ya*n  it 
so,"  Ben  said  to  himself.  "And  I  wish 
all  these  folks  would  go  home  before 
we  make  the  clean-up."  He  drew 
Mundon  aside.  "Can't  you  get  rid 
of  them  before  we  melt  the  stuff? " 

"  Don't  know.  They  'pear  to  be 
powerful  interested  in  what  we're 
doin',"  the  other  replied. 

"That's  just  it;  they're  too  much 
interested.  We  've  got  gold  on  both 
days  ;  but  there  's  no  knowing  how  long 
that  luck  will  last.  Suppose  we  opened 
the  crucible  some  night  and  did  n't  get 
anything  ?  " 

"Well,  'twould  n't  kill  us  if  we 
didn't — just  once." 

"  Just  think  what  they  'd  say !  " 

Mundon  smiled.  "  What  do  we  care 
what  they  say  ? "  he  sturdily  asserted. 
"  I  tell  you,  Ben,  I  would  n't  be  a  bit 


WORK   STOPPED  139 

sorry  if  it  got  noised  'round  that  we 
were  n't  makin'  such  a  bloomin'  lot." 

"Why?" 

"  Well,  it  'd  keep  folks  from  gettin' 
envious,  for  one  thing." 

The  result  of  the  day's  work  did  not 
greatly  vary  from  those  of  the  other 
two.  About  the  same  small  quantity 
of  gold-sponge  remained  in  the  crucible, 
and  the  crowd  seemed  slightly  disap- 
pointed. 

"  That  little  bit  would  n't  make  any- 
body very  envious,"  remarked  Ben. 
"In  fact,  I  doubt  if  most  people  would 
work  as  hard  as  we  have  for  it." 

"  You  think  it  would  n't ;  but  you 
don't  know  much  'bout  envy,  and  you 
don't  know  men.  This  is  the  stuff," 
Mundon  said,  as  he  carefully  took  the 
gold  from  the  crucible,  "be  it  much  or 
little  of  it,  that  makes  wild  beasts  of 
men.  'Most  all  the  sins  that  make  a 
man  into  a  beast  can  be  laid  to  this 
pretty  shinin'  dirt." 


140        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  fourth  day 
Ben  and  Mundon  were  working  like 
beavers. 

"  'Bout  five  minutes  now,  and  we  '11 
take  out  the  amalgam,"  Mundon  re- 
marked. "  I  b'lieve  it  '11  carry  more 
than  twice  as  much  as  yesterday's. 
Somehow,  the  stuff  shined  more  when 
we  broke  it  up.  I  reckon  I  've  got 
'bout  a  quarter  of  the  chimney  chipped." 

"  That 's  slick,"  said  Ben.  "  When 
do  you  think  we  'd  better  tackle  the 
ground? " 

"  O,  that  '11  keep  till  we  're  through 
with  the  chimney.  You  see,  a  good 
deal  works  through  the  cracks  now,  and 
we  kin  make  a  thorough  clean-up  after- 
wards. I  b'lieve  there 's  lots  of  copper 
as  well  as  gold  and  silver  in  that  slag 
under  the  old  wharf." 

"You  do?" 

"  I  'm  'most  as  certain  of  it  as  I  am 
of  the  chimney.  If  we  make  as  much 
as  the  opium  brought,  I  s'pose  you  '11 
be  satisfied  ? " 


WORK   STOPPED  141 

"  That  would  be  good  enough." 

"  Queer  them  smuggler  fellers  never 
showed  up,  ain't  it  ?  The  more  I  think 
of  it  the  more  certain  I  am  that  that 
was  what  the  burglar  was  after." 

"  But  we  could  n't  find  any  traces  of 
the  drug." 

tc  Mebbe  he  got  it  before  we  run  out. 
Well,  most  likely  some  one  of  those 
Government  chaps  warned  'em  not  to 
come  here  while  the  watch  was  bein' 
kept  up.  There  's  gen'rally  some  one 
gits  wind  of  such  a  plan  in  time  to 
make  fools  of  the  rest.  I  s'pose  the 
temptation  to  be  tricky  is  too  much  for 


'em." 


"  Yes.  And  I  suppose  there  are 
many  temptations  to  a  man  in  such  a 
position." 

"  Bless  you !  I  guess  there  is ! 
There  's  lots  of  men  who  'd  be  square 
enough,  if  they  was  let  alone  ;  but  put 
'em  in  a  place  where  there  's  a  chance 
to  cheat  and  some  one  to  show  'em  the 


142        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

way,  and  they  don't  need  no  coaxin'. 
Did  you  suspicion  any  of  'em  in  par- 
tic'lar?" 

"Well,"  Ben  hesitated,  "it's  an 
awful  mean  thing  to  say  about  a  man 
when  you  've  got  no  proof," —  he 
dropped  his  voice, — "  but  you  know  I 
did  n't  like  the  man  who  was  put  in 
charge  of  the  case." 

"  What 's  his  name  ?  " 

"  Cutter.  I  could  n't  help  feeling 
that  he  was  n't  straight.  He  did  n't 
seem  sincere." 

"  He  was  n't  'round  here  at  all,  was 
he?" 

"  No.  But  there  was  n't  any  need 
of  his  coming.  He  just  stays  in  the 
office  and  directs  others.  How  easily  he 
could  warn  the  men  who  stowed  away 
the  stuff  here  not  to  come  after  it !  " 

"  They  made  me  mad  with  their  sus- 
picions ! "  Mundon  exclaimed.  "  I 
should  think  that  'sperience  would  have 
taught  'em  to  suspect  one  of  their- 


WORK   STOPPED  143 

selves  sooner  than  us.  'T  was  only  one 
man  as  showed  any  suspicions  outright, 
and  like  as  not  he  was  one  of  the 
rogues  himself.  I  was  half  a  mind 
to  tell  him  so  once,  but  I  knowed 
'twould  n't  do  no  good." 

"  Not  a  bit,"  Ben  agreed ;  "  and  it 
might  do  harm." 

"  Mining 's  a  curious  business.  It 's 
the  only  business  on  earth,  though, 
where  you  ain't  cuttin'  the  ground 
away  from  under  some  other  man's 
feet.  You  're  just  a-gettin'  somethin' 
that  everybody  wants  and  needs,  and, 
consequently,  everybody 's  glad  you  're 
gettin'  it.  It's  a  gamble,  and  that's 
why  it 's  so  thunderin'  fascinatin'. 
There 's  one  drawback,  though ;  it 
makes  a  man  distrustful  of  his  kind, — 
I  s'pose  'cause  it's  so  mighty  easy  to 
get  fooled.  An  old  miner  does  n't 
b'lieve  in  any  one  but  just  himself  — 
from  principle.  "  It's  astonishin',  how 
completely  he  kin  pin  his  faith  to  rocks, 


H4        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

and  how  he  balks  when  it  comes  to 
tryin'  it  on  human  nature." 

"  Father  was  n't  much  so,"  remarked 
Ben  ;  "  but  he  was  an  exception,  I  sup- 
pose." 

"  He  was  n't  rich,  was  he  ?  " 

"  No ;  although  he  often  thought 
he  was.  His  riches  never  came  near 
enough  to  capture." 

"  That 's  it,  you  see.  But  you  take 
an  old  miner  who  's  made  his  fortunes, 
and  lost  'em  through  havin'  salted 
mines  worked  off  on  him, —  if  he  ain't 
the  scariest  bird  ever  seen  !  Talk  about 
saltin'  a  bird's  tail !  Why,  he  would  n't 
trust  his  own  twin  brother !  " 

"  Well,  there  '*s  no  danger  of  ours 
being  salted." 

u  No;  'cause  'twas  n't  thought  to  be 
a  mine.  I  Ve  seen  some  queer  tricks 
played  in  that  line.  Once  I  knew  a 
man  who  went  to  look  at  a  mine.  He 
saw  the  samples  taken  from  all  over  the 
mine,  put  'em  in  canvas  bags  himself, 


WORK   STOPPED  145 

and  never  took  his  eyes  off  these  bags 
till  they  was  sealed  up  with  his  private 
seal.  Just  as  the  rest  of  the  party  was 
gettin'  into  the  stage  to  leave,  the  man 
who  was  a-thinkin'  of  buyin'  the  mine 
had  a  kind  of  a  feelin'  that  he  'd  ben 
fooled.  He  could  n't  explain  it  nohow, 
but  he  just  had  that  feelin'.  So,  he 
wouldn't  get  on  that  stage,  but  he 
went  all  over  the  mine  a  second  time 
and  took  another  set  of  samples.  Well, 
the  assays  told  the  story.  The  first  set 
went  more  'n  a  hundred  dollars  to  the 
ton,  and  the  last  set  went  less  'n  a  dol- 
lar." 

"  How  did  they  break  the  seals  ? " 

"They  didn't  break  'em.  They 
salted  the  bags  after  he  sealed  'em  by 
squeezin'  a  quill  toothpick  through  the 
canvas  and  blowin'  gold-dust  into  'em. 
I  don't  wonder  that " 

Mundon  was  interrupted  by  a  pound- 
ing on  the  gates. 

"  I  '11  go,"  said  Ben. 


146        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

When  he  had  unfastened  the  gates, 
two  men  walked  into  the  yard.  The 
first  handed  Ben  a  paper. 

"What  does  this  mean?"  Ben  won- 
deringly  asked.  He  did  not  at  first 
comprehend  the  meaning  of  the  pro- 
ceeding, but  his  eye  caught  the  word 
"  injunction,"  and  he  knew  that  meant 
"  stop." 

"It's  an  injunction  served  upon  you," 
the  man  replied. 

"Are  you  an  officer?  " 

"  I  am." 

"What  ground — "  Ben  stopped, 
for  he  felt  his  voice  tremble. 

"  It 's  to  compel  you  to  stop  work- 
ing another  man's  property." 

"  But  I  bought  the  right  to  work  it  — 
from  the  owner!  "  Ben  cried. 

"  That  he  did,"  Mundon  spoke  up 
stoutly,  "  and  I  signed  as  a  witness." 

"  Where  is  the  owner  ?  Where  is 
old  Madge  ?  I  Ve  got  his  signature  to 
the  paper  !  He  can't  go  back  on  that !  " 


WORK   STOPPED  147 

the  boy  exclaimed.  "  He  's  done  this 
from  spite,  because  I  refused  to  take 
him  into  partnership  ! " 

"  Don't  get  excited,"  the  officer  said. 
"  Mr.  Madge  has  nothing  to  do  with 
this." 

There  was  an  angry  light  in  Ben's 
eyes. 

"Well,  who  has,  then?"  he  defi- 
antly inquired. 

"  I  have,"  the  other  man  replied. 

He  had  not  spoken  before,  and  he 
seemed  to  enjoy  the  boy's  distress.  He 
was  a  small  man,  shabbily  dressed,  and 
there  was  nothing  about  his  appearance 
to  indicate  that  he  could  be  possessed 
of  wealth. 

He  paused  after  those  two  words  and 
appeared  to  relish  prolonging  the  sus- 
pense. 

Ben  turned  upon  him.  "  What  have 
you  got  to  do  with  it  ? "  he  asked. 

"  I  happen  to  be  the  owner  of  the 
land — and  improvements." 


148        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  But  you  leased  it,  and  the  lease 
does  not  expire  until  next  November. 
The  improvements  belong  to  the  man 
who  leased  the  land  and  put  them 
on  it." 

"  The  lease  expired  a  month  ago." 

"That  is  false!"  Ben's  indignation 
was  so  great  that  he  could  hardly  speak. 

"  Mr.  Madge  told  us  that  the  lease 
ran  for  thirty-five  years,  and  commenced 
in  November,  1866!" 

"  That  was  the  date  on  which  the 
building  was  commenced ;  the  lease 
dated  from  four  months  earlier." 

Ben  turned  to  Mundon  sick  at  heart. 
"Can't  you  remember  what  he  said 
when  I  filled  in  the  dates?" 

"  He  said  the  first  pile  for  the  buildin' 
was  drove  in  November,  1866  ;  but  he 
meant  fur  us  to  think  that  were  the  date 
of  the  lease,  too.  'Pears  like  we  've 
ben  taken  in,  Ben." 

"  The  building  belongs  to  me  and  the 
rubbish  that 's  here.  I  've  paid  for  it 


WORK   STOPPED  149 

fairly  and  squarely,  and  it's  only  right 
that  I  should  be  allowed  to  work  here 
until  November.  I  bought  the  right 
to  do  it." 

"We're  not  talking  about  any  rights 
now,  young  man,  except  those  the  law 
allows,"  the  owner  remarked  with  a 
dryness  that  was  irritating.  "  You  can't 
trespass  on  another  man's  property  to 
work  anything."  He  turned  to  Mun- 
don,  who  was  bending  over  the  "jigger." 
"  Stop  that !  That 's  mine  ! "  he  cried. 

Mundon  straightened  himself.  In  his 
hand  he  held  a  wide-mouthed  bottle 
partly  filled  with  amalgam. 

"  No,  it  ain't,"  he  replied.  "  It  b'longs 
to  this  young  man.  He  'd  just  about 
finished  with  his  day's  work  when  you 
came  in, — and  it  b'longs  to  him." 

"  I  've  got  the  law  on  my  side.  He 
can't  take  anything  off  this  property  — 
my  property — now'' 

"Well  then,"  responded  Mundon, 
setting  the  bottle  on  the  floor  of  the 


150        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"jigger,"  "neither  kin  you.  If  you 
touch  this  stuff  before  this  thing 's 
settled,  I  '11  have  the  law  on  you." 

The  two  men  looked  at  each  other 
for  a  moment. 

Then  Mundon  drew  Ben  aside. 
"  'T  ain't  no  use  talkin'  to  him.  I 
know  him  —  his  name's  Fish  and  he  's 
a  reg'lar  old  shark.  Rich  as  anythin' — 
owns  piles  of  tenements  and  grinds  his 
tenants  down  ter  their  marrer  bones.  I 
saw  him  nosin'  'round  here  on  the  day 
we  made  our  first  clean-up.  The  ques- 
tion is,  What  are  you  goin'  to  do  ?  " 

"O,  I  don't  know!"  Ben  cried  in 
despair. 

The  two  strangers  were  leisurely  sur- 
veying the  arastra  and  its  contents. 

"  Know  any  lawyer  ?  "  Mundon 
asked. 

"  No." 

A  recollection  of  Mr.  Hale,  who  had 
been  in  the  Collector's  office  on  the  day 
of  his  visit,  flashed  before  him.  He 


WORK   STOPPED  151 

believed  him  to  be  the  great  lawyer  of 
whom  he  had  heard.  He  had  appeared 
interested  in  the  venture,  if  skeptical ; 
and  since  then  the  scheme  had  proved 
a  success.  Ben  was  thinking  very 
hard. 

"  'Cause  if  you  do,"  Mundon  con- 
tinued, "  he  might  find  some  hole  fur 
us  to  crawl  out  of." 

This  view  of  the  situation  was  hu- 
miliating, but  Ben  was  forced  to  accept 
it. 

"  Stay  here  and  watch  things,  while  I 
go  down  town  and  see  what  can  be 
done,"  he  answered.  He  was  angrier 
than  he  had  ever  been  in  his  life.  The 
injustice  of  being  made  a  victim  of 
fraud  seemed  to  sear  his  spirit  like  hot 
iron.  To  be  tricked,  cheated,  and  have 
no  redress  was  such  a  monstrous  wrong ! 

"  To  think,"  he  said  to  himself  on 
his  way  down-town,  "  how  I  resisted 
the  temptation  not  to  tell  old  Madge 
my  whole  plan  !  This  is  the  reward  I 


152        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

get  for  being  too  conscientious.  I 
ought  not  to  have  told  a  soul !  " 

Bitter  thoughts  crowded  fast  upon 
him  as  he  hurried  along.  He  recalled 
a  conversation  he  had  once  heard  be- 
tween two  young  men.  One  had  said 
that  there  was  not  a  rich  man  living 
who  had  acquired  his  wealth  —  unless 
it  had  been  inherited  —  honestly  and 
with  a  clear  conscience.  Ben  had  been 
impressed  with  this  statement  and  had 
repeated  it  to  his  father,  who  had  de- 
nounced it  as  false.  "  There  are  plenty 
of  knaves  among  rich  men,  but  there 
are  honest  men,  too/*  his  father  had 
said.  "It  must  have  been  a  poor  man, 
envious  of  the  wealth  of  others  who 
said  that  thing." 

Still,  Ben  reflected  that  his  father  had 
been  a  poor  man,  credulous,  trusting  in 
all  men,  to  his  own  disadvantage  some- 
times. 

"In  order  to  get  on  in  the  world  was 
it  necessary  to  deceive  and  cheat?*'  the 


WORK   STOPPED  153 

boy  questioned.  "  No,  it  is  n't  true  !  " 
he  exclaimed  aloud,  causing  the  passers- 
by  to  regard  him  curiously.  "  I  'd 
rather  be  in  my  place  and  know  that 
I  've  done  the  square  thing  than  be  in 
his !  I  would  n't  stain  my  immortal 
soul  for  gold  !  " 

Sustained  by  this  thought,  he  found 
courage  to  make  his  appeal. 

Mr.  Hale  was  in  his  office,  and  in  a 
few  words  Ben  told  him  what  had  hap- 
pened. 

"  So,  you  Ve  come  to  grief  already, 
my  boy,"  the  lawyer  said.  "  Well, 
let 's  see  what  can  be  done." 

He  asked  Ben  a  few  questions  and 
dispatched  a  messenger  to  the  City  Hall 
to  search  for  the  recording  of  the  lease. 

"  Now,  go  home  and  wait,"  he  said 
in  conclusion.  "And  don't  worry  about 
it  any  more  than  you  can  help." 

"  Thank  you.  About  paying  you, 
Mr.  Hale, — "  Ben  began,  but  the  other 
interrupted  him. 


i54        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  Never  mind  about  that.  I  don't 
expect  any  pay.  I  sometimes  do  things 
for  pure  love  of  humanity.  Queer  way 
to  do  business,  is  n't  it  ?  But  I  made 
my  own  way  in  the  world,  boy,  and  I 
know  what  it  is.  Why,  when  I  first 
went  in  for  law,  it  was  like  climbing  a 
greased  pole  backwards." 

Ben  left  the  office  with  a  lighter  heart ; 
as,  indeed,  did  most  people.  Like  them, 
too,  he  had  a  conviction  that  the  lawyer 
would  find  a  way  out  of  the  dilemma. 

Mr.  Hale  had  told  Ben  that  he  had 
no  right  to  occupy  or  work  the  prop- 
erty while  the  injunction  was  pending ; 
so  he  hastened  back  to  consult  with 
Mundon  as  to  the  best  course  to  be 
pursued. 

He  found  the  latter  disconsolately 
sitting  upon  the  fence.  The  mule  was 
tied  to  a  post  alongside,  and  the  pair 
presented  a  sorry  appearance. 

The  men  had  departed,  Mundon 
said,  after  nailing  up  the  gates. 


WORK   STOPPED  155 

The  partners  agreed  to  take  turns 
in  keeping  guard  over  the  premises  until 
the  result  of  Mr.  Hale's  search  was 
known ;  and  it  was  decided  that  Ben 
should  take  the  first  night. 

"  It 's  exasperating  not  to  know  how 
much  there  is  in  the  amalgam.  In  all 
justice,  it 's  mine  !  "  said  Ben,  with  flash- 
ing eyes.  "And  I  intend  to  watch  it, — 
and  fight  for  it  too,  if  need  be." 

"  You  Ve  got  to  fight  such  mean 
sneaks  with  one  weapon  —  and  only 
one  —  and  that 's  the  law,"  remarked 
Mundon,  carefully  whittling  a  stick  he 
held.  "  There  ain't  no  other  way  you 
kin  git  the  best  of  'em."  He  pointed 
up  the  hillside.  "  There  's  your  cousin 
now.  She  's  ben  down  here  askin'  after 
you." 

"  Come  out  on  the  Point  for  a  while, 
Ben,"  said  Beth.  "  It  will  rest  you." 

With  a  grave  face  he  joined  her,  and 
they  slowly  walked  along  the  beach. 


156        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 
CHAPTER   XI 

A    MIDNIGHT    FIGHT 

"  | '  VE  met  one  square  man,  and  that 's 

1   Mr.  Hale,"  Ben  said  with  emphasis, 

after  he  had  told  her  about  his  trouble. 

"Then,  you  don't  think  Mundon  's 

square  ? " 

Ben  stopped  and  faced  her.    "  What 
have  you  heard  ?  "  he  asked. 

"  They  say  that  he  was  in  with  the 
smugglers  and  led  you  to  discover  their 
opium  so  that  you  'd  get  the  reward, — 
and  then  he  'd  cheat  you  out  of  it." 
"  What  nonsense  !    How  could  he  ?" 
"  O,  I  don't  know, —  somehow." 
"  I  suppose  Mr.  Hodges  and  his  wife 
started  that.    What  more  did  they  say  ? " 
He  stooped  and  picked  up  a  smooth 
bit  of  driftwood  which  he  flung  far  out 
into  the  water.     "  I  don't  care  that  for 
their  opinion  ! " 


A   MIDNIGHT   FIGHT  157 

"  They  say  that  you  '11  never  get  your 
money  back ;  that  Mr.  Fish  is  the 
meanest  man  in  town ;  that  he  won't 
give  you  any  show  at  all,  and  won't  let 
you  take  another  cent  out  of  the  Works." 

"  Then,  they  Ve  heard  about  it  al- 
ready ?"  he  asked.  She  nodded.  "Quick 
work  !  And  that  it  serves  me  right.  I 
dare  say  that 's  another  thing  they  say  ? " 

The  girl's  face  flushed.  "  Yes,  they 
did.  Mrs.  Hodges  was  the  worst.  She 
said  that  Mundon  was  a  sharper  and 
that  you  were  a  greeny." 

"  Well,  it  is  n't  over  yet." 

They  walked  on  for  a  few  moments 
in  silence.  Although  Ben  spoke  up 
stoutly,  he  was  very  despondent. 

"  Tell  you  what  I  wish  you  'd  do, 
Beth  ?  "  he  suddenly  said.  "  I  'm  going 
to  watch  to-night  at  the  Works  ;  and  if 
you  should  hear  me  blow  a  whistle,  do 
you  blow  Hodges'  as  loud  as  you  can. 
Three  times,  you  know.  Does  he  still 
keep  one  at  the  house?" 


158        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"Yes.  Ever  since  he  had  that 
trouble  about  the  land  it  has  hung 
behind  the  kitchen  door.  I  can  easily 
take  it  up  to  my  room." 

"All  right.  Your  house  is  so  near 
that  you  'd  be  sure  to  hear  me.  The 
gates  are  nailed  up,  but  I  can't  help 
feeling  a  little  nervous.  Keep  what 
I  've  told  you  to  yourself." 

"  Do  you  think  you  will  lose  it  all, 
Ben?" 

"  I  can't  tell.  I  'm  going  to  make  a 
fight  for  it." 

"  You  're  awfully  worried.  I  can  tell 
by  your  face." 

"Well,  what  if  I  am?  Most  men 
are  —  most  of  the  time.  It's  life." 
Beth  sighed.  "  We  're  rushed  along, 
just  as  if  we  were  on  a  river,  and  all 
we  can  do  is  to  do  the  best  we  can.  If 
we  do  that,  it 's  enough." 

He  stopped  and  ground  the  heel  of 
his  shoe  in  the  damp  sand.  "  I  heard 
a  man  describe  it  oddly  once.  He 


A    MIDNIGHT   FIGHT  159 

likened  life  to  a  dog-pit.  He  called  it 
an  f  arena/  but  he  meant  a  dog-pit.  And 
he  said  a  man  had  to  take  hold  with  a 
bulldog's  grip  to  succeed.  I  thought  it 
was  horrible  then,  but  somehow  it  comes 
back  to  me  now." 

"  I  never  saw  you  in  fighting  mood 
before." 

"  Have  n't  I  had  enough  to  make  me 
so  ?  To  have  that  rich  old  miser  take 
what  belongs  to  me!  It's  mine,  and 
he  knows  it,  and  so  does  everybody 
else  !  And  if  he  sneaks  through  this 
hole  he  's  found  in  the  lease  and  takes 
my  gold,  he  's  just  as  much  a  thief  as 
if  he  'd  broken  into  my  house  and 
stolen  what  did  n't  belong  to  him  !  I 
don't  care  if  the  law  does  back  him 
up, —  it 's  dishonest  trickery!  " 

"  Maybe  you  won't  be  a  millionaire, 
after  all."  The  girl's  face  wore  a  blank 
expression.  Then  she  suddenly  bright- 
ened. "  But  millionaires  always  go 
through  this  sort  of  thing,  don't  they? 


i6o        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

Mr.  Palmer  landed  in  San  Francisco 
with  only  fifty  cents  in  his  pocket  and 
chopped  wood  to  earn  his  dinner.  I  've 
heard  him  tell  about  it  lots  of  times.  I 
think  he  'd  rather  talk  about  it  than 
anything  else  in  the  world.  Perhaps," 
she  glanced  at  Ben,  "  you  're  too  well 
dressed,  Ben,  to  turn  out  a  million- 
aire. Perhaps  you  ought  to  go  bare- 
footed, or,  at  least,  wear  ragged  shoes 
first." 

Her  companion  smiled.  "  Girls  are 
always  thinking  of  appearances,"  he 
said.  "  But  I  think  you  had  better 
give  up  the  hope  of  my  being  a  million- 
aire; that 's  a  fairy  tale.  If  I  make  a 
few  thousand  out  of  this, —  provided  I 
can  beat  this  old  devil-fish, —  I  '11  be 
satisfied." 

"I  'd  set  my  heart  on  a  million,"  she 
replied ;  "  but  if  you  're  satisfied,  I 
ought  to  be.  You  think  girls  are  funny 
to  be  always  thinking  of  looks.  How 
can  we  help  it  "*  We  're  never  really  in 


A   MIDNIGHT   FIGHT  161 

anything ;  we  have  to  stand  one  side 
and  see  the  boys  do  things." 

"  Fighting,  for  instance,"  Ben  re- 
marked. 

They  had  retraced  their  steps,  and 
were  again  at  the  entrance  of  the 
Works.  Mundon  still  sat  on  the 
fence,  thoughtfully  gazing  at  the  nailed 
gates.  The  mule  was  wistfully  looking 
at  them,  too,  with  an  injured  air ;  as 
indeed  was  quite  fitting  in  a  tenant  who 
had  been  evicted. 

"Good-night,"  said  Ben.  "Don't 
forget." 

"  I  won't,"  Beth  replied.  Then  she 
added  in  an  undertone,  "Don't  tell 
him," — she  indicated  Mundon, — "that 
I  'm  going  to  listen."  She  turned 
quickly  away,  before  Ben  had  time  to 
reply. 

Through  the  long  hours  of  the  night, 
as  Ben  sat  in  the  shadow  of  a  wall  across 
the  street  from  the  Works,  he  had  plenty 


1 6z        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

of  time  for  reflection.  Although  he  had 
indignantly  refused  to  believe  the  impu- 
tation against  Mundon's  honesty,  still 
it  kept  persistently  recurring  to  him. 

"  Can  it  be  possible  that  he  was  in 
with  that  smuggling  gang,  and  that  fear 
of  personal  safety  made  him  use  me  as 
a  catspaw  to  inform  on  them  ?  "  he  asked 
himself,  but  dismissed  this  as  being 
highly  improbable.  Mundon's  surprise 
when  the  opium  was  discovered  had 
been  too  genuine  to  be  doubted. 

Besides,  had  he  been  a  party  to  the 
smuggling,  by  exposing  it  he  would 
have  put  an  end  to  the  business  in  the 
future,  as  far  as  he  was  concerned.  The 
Custom  House  authorities  had  held  a 
theory  that  he  had  been  one  of  the 
ring,  from  the  fact  that  no  one  came  to 
remove  the  opium.  As  an  offset  to 
this  Mundon  maintained  that  one  or 
more  of  the  Government  employees 
must  have  been  in  with  the  smugglers 
and  warned  them.  It  was  a  block- 


A    MIDNIGHT    FIGHT  163 

puzzle,  the  pieces  of  which  Ben  placed 
in  many  different  positions  as  the  night 
wore  on. 

How  long  that  night  seemed  to  him  ! 
His  brain  was  too  excited  to  permit 
sleep  to  trouble  him,  and  his  position 
harassed  him. 

About  two  o'clock  in  the  morning 
he  saw  a  figure  stealing  along  in  the 
shadow  of  the  building.  The  moon 
was  shining  and  Ben  could  see  that  the 
man  stopped  and  looked  around,  as  if 
to  make  sure  that  he  was  not  observed. 

"  He  's  going  to  climb  up  and  drop 
through  that  hole  in  the  roof!"  Ben 
said  to  himself.  "  That 's  the  way  he 
got  in  before.  I  Ve  got  the  burglar  at 
last ! " 

The  figure  paused  as  if  to  listen,  and 
then  cautiously  climbed  up  the  rough 
side  of  the  building  and  disappeared 
through  the  hole  in  the  roof. 

Ben  decided  to  go  around  the  build- 
ing and  enter  through  the  opening  on 


164        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

the  water  side.  He  was  obliged  to 
climb  the  high  bulkhead  which  ran  out 
into  the  bay,  and  then  he  swiftly  ran 
along  the  beach.  Peering  within,  he 
saw  the  man  stooping  over  the  "jigger  " 
and  searching  for  its  contents  by  the 
aid  of  a  bull's-eye  lantern.  He  was  of 
slight  physique,  and  there  was  some- 
thing about  the  figure  that  was  strangely 
familiar.  Just  then  the  man  raised  his 
head  in  a  listening  attitude,  and  Ben 
recognized  him. 

"Syd!"  he  exclaimed.  "I  always 
knew  he  was  a  mean  sneak,  but  I  never 
thought  he  'd  be  a  thief!  " 

Ben  sprang  toward  him  and  grasped 
his  arm.  "  That 's  mine !  You  are 
stealing  my  gold  ! "  he  cried. 

The  other  tried  to  shake  off  his  ac- 
cuser. "  Let  go  !  "  he  screamed. 

But  Ben  did  not  relax  his  hold.  "Not 
till  you  give  me  what  you  Ve  stolen  ! " 

"  I  won't !  I  Ve  as  much  right  to 
what  I  find  as  you  have,"  Syd  dog- 


A    MIDNIGHT   FIGHT  165 

gedly  replied ;  "  and  I  'm  goin'  to  keep 
what  I  Ve  got.  Let  go,  I  say  !  " 

For  answer  Ben  flung  himself  upon 
him. 

They  were  about  equally  matched 
and  both  fought  desperately.  A  mis- 
step on  the  ground  sent  them  sprawl- 
ing among  the  broken  bricks  and  rub- 
bish. 

Ben  was  uppermost,  and  soon  would 
have  vanquished  his  adversary,  when 
something  flashed  before  his  eyes  and 
he  felt  the  thrust  of  a  knife  in  his  breast. 

With  his  remaining  strength  he  blew 
a  blast  on  his  police-whistle,  and  then 
a  faintness  overpowered  him  and  he 
knew  nothing  more. 


1 66        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 


CHAPTER   XII 

IN    THE    SICKROOM 

HE  house  in  which  Beth  lived  was 


T 


a  dreary  structure  perched  on  the 
northern  slope  of  the  steep  hill  above 
the  Works.  A  dispute,  common  in 
the  settlement  of  property  boundaries 
in  California,  had  arisen  in  regard  to 
the  land  on  which  the  house  stood,  and 
in  consequence  it  had  never  been  painted 
nor  the  ground  around  it  inclosed  by  a 
fence. 

From  the  interior,  however,  one  over- 
looked these  deficiencies,  because  of 
the  gorgeous  panorama  of  bay,  moun- 
tain, and  sky  that  was  framed  by  every 
window. 

Dame  Trot,  as  Ben  called  her,  was 
the  wife  of  Beth's  stepfather;  for  the 
girl's  own  mother  had  died  shortly  after 
her  second  marriage.  The  home  was 


IN   THE   SICKROOM  167 

not  congenial  to  the  young  girl ;  but  as 
Mr.  Hodges  had  used  all  the  money 
which  her  mother  had  left,  she  was 
compelled  to  remain  under  his  roof. 

Sydney  Chalmers  was  the  son  of  the 
present  Mrs.  Hodges  by  a  former  mar- 
riage. 

It  was  in  Mr.  Hodges'  house  that 
Ben  regained  consciousness  on  the 
morning  of  the  encounter  at  the  Works. 

He  was  conscious  of  a  severe  pain  in 
his  head  and  a  feeling  of  great  weak- 
ness. Some  one  was  talking,  and  grad- 
ually a  dim  realization  came  to  Ben  that 
he  was  the  subject  of  the  conversation. 

He  recognized  the  voice  of  Mr. 
Hodges. 

"  He  's  been  trying  to  mine  the  in- 
side of  the  old  Smelting  Works,  and 
Fish  the  owner  served  an  injunction 
on  him  yesterday,  just  as  he  was 
going  to  get  the  clean-up  for  his  day's 
work." 

"  That 's  a  strange  enterprise,"  some 


1 68        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

one  replied.  Ben  recognized  the  doc- 
tor's voice. 

"  Yes ;  I  'm  thinking  he  's  throwing 
his  money  away.  'Course  he  got  a 
little  gold,  but  in  my  opinion  there 
ain't  enough  in  the  whole  shebang  to 
pay  for  the  mule  he  's  bought." 

"  Then,  he  put  money  into  the 
scheme  ? " 

"  Every  cent  he  had  in  the  world 
went  into  it.  Crazy!  Might  just  as 
well  stand  on  the  sea-wall  and  fling  his 
dollars  into  the  bay.  Mine  chimneys ! 
Don't  you  suppose  if  there  was  any 
gold  in  that  chimney,  old  Madge,  who 
leased  the  property,  would  have  got  it 
out  years  ago  ?  He 's  got  Ben's  two 
hundred  dollars,  though ;  that 's  what 
suits  him  better  than  mining  soot." 
He  laughed  at  his  poor  witticism. 

"  Don't  talk  about  it  now,"  the  doc- 
tor said.  "  He  '11  come  to,  presently." 

Ben  opened  his  eyes  to  see  the  doctor 
bending  over  him. 


IN   THE   SICKROOM  169 

"It's  all  right,  my  boy,"  he  said. 
"  Don't  be  frightened." 

Ben  dimly  wondered  where  he  was. 
The  wound  in  his  breast  was  painful 
and  he  felt  very  weak. 

He  noticed  that  Mr.  Hodges  was 
standing  at  the  foot  of  the  bed  and  he 
surmised  that  he  must  have  been  carried 
to  his  house.  He  closed  his  eyes  and 
tried  to  think  over  the  events  of  the 
previous  night. 

"It  wasn't  much  of  a  knife,"  the 
doctor  said,  "or  it  would  have  done 
more  damage.  When  you  feel  able  to 
talk,"  he  kindly  said  to  Ben,  "you  can 
tell  us  all  about  it." 

The  patient  nodded  and  closed  his 
eyes  again.  Everything  seemed  slip- 
ping from  him. 

"Guess  there  ain't  much  to  tell," 
Hodges  said  gruffly.  "It's  pretty  cer- 
tain who  done  it." 

Ben's  senses  faintly  rallied  at  this 
remark. 


i  yo        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  Could  it  be  possible/'  he  thought, 
"  that  they  did  not  know  who  his  as- 
sailant was  ?  "  He  instantly  surmised 
that  Hodges  suspected  Mundon.  "  Syd 
must  have  made  good  his  escape  be- 
fore they  found  me,"  he  mentally  con- 
cluded. "What  a  coward!" 

He  lay  with  his  eyes  closed  a  great 
deal  of  the  time  and  reviewed  the  situ- 
ation. Should  he  expose  Syd?  It 
was  hard  to  keep  from  doing  so  when 
he  thought  of  all  he  had  suffered  at  his 
hands.  He  had  been  such  a  brazen 
thief,  too,  so  shameless  in  his  villainy. 

Still,  by  the  ramifications  of  marriage, 
he  occupied  the  relation  of  a  brother  to 
Beth ;  at  least  she  treated  him  as  one, 
and  he  lived  under  the  same  roof  with 
her.  Besides,  his  family  had  received 
Ben  in  his  helpless  state  and  were  car- 
ing for  him. 

A  sudden  generosity  pleaded  with 
him  not  to  expose  the  culprit.  It  was 
such  a  noble  impulse,  so  far  above  the 


IN   THE   SICKROOM  171 

standards  to  which  he  was  accustomed 
that  he  was  almost  ashamed  to  follow 
it,  and  tried  to  belittle  it  by  placing  a 
value  upon  it.  He  said  to  himself  half- 
contemptuously  :  "  There  was  n't  more 
than  thirty  or  forty  dollars  in  the  amal- 
gam, anyway,  and  that  's  a  low  price  for 
a  reputation.  When  he  finds  out  that 
I  have  n't  told  on  him  he  can  return 
the  gold.  At  any  rate,  I  'm  going  to 
give  him  a  chance/1  He  resolved  upon 
this  course,  although  it  annoyed  him 
that  Mundon  should  be  suspected,  and 
he  felt  that  he  must  exonerate  the 
latter. 

"  You  said  just  now,  Mr.  Hodges, 
that  you  were  pretty  certain  who  —  who 
did  this  to  me." 

"  Yes,  I  did ;  and  I  am,"  emphati- 
cally replied  Mr.  Hodges.  "  It 's  that 
man  Mundon  you  Ve  been  taken  in 
by  who  's  done  it." 

"  You  're  all  wrong,"  Ben  answered. 
"  He  had  nothing  to  do  with  it." 


172        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"Where  was  he  then?  Where  is  he 
now?" 

"He  had  to  find  a  place  for  the 
mule ;  then  he  went  down-town  to 
sleep.  Of  course,  he  could  n't  sleep 
in  the  room  we  built,  because  the  place 
does  n't  belong  to  us,  they  say." 

Mr.  Hodges  looked  the  doubt  he  felt. 

"  Let  him  give  an  account  of  himself 
first,  Ben,  before  you  're  too  sure  of  his 


innocence." 


"  He  '11  come  around  just  as  soon  as 
he  hears  of  this."  Ben  closed  his  eyes 
wearily,  but  suddenly  opened  them 
again.  "  There  he  is  now.  I  can  hear 
his  voice ! "  he  cried,  as  Mundon  ap- 
peared. 

"  Well,  Ben  my  boy,  how  'd  this  hap- 
pen ?  "  Mundon's  distress  was  too  gen- 
uine to  be  doubted. 

"  I  saw  a  man  taking  the  amalgam, 
and  I  tried  to  stop  him.  We  got  into 
a  fight  over  it  and  he  scratched  me  a 
little;  that 'sail." 


IN   THE   SICKROOM  173 

"  All !  Is  n't  it  enough  ? "  Mundon 
indignantly  cried.  "How  white  you 
are,  Ben  !  Why,  you  're  almost  faint- 
in'  away  now." 

"No;  I  'm  all  right,"  Ben  hastened 
to  say. 

"  You  don't  look  it.  What  sort  of 
a  lookin'  man  was  he  ?  " 

Ben  closed  his  eyes.  "  I  don't  know. 
It  was  dark,  you  know." 

"'T  was  bright  moonlight, —  and 
there  's  a  lot  shines  through  the  holes  in 
the  roof  on  a  clear  night.  Ain't  you 
got  no  idee  what  he  looked  like  ?  " 

Ben  shook  his  head. 

Mundon  reflected  a  moment.  "That's 
queer,  Ben.  You  don't  tell  us  enough 
about  the  man  for  us  to  git  hold  of 
anything,"  he  said.  "  I  'd  like  to  git 
at  him.  You  had  a  tussle  with  him, 
yet  you  don't  say  whether  he  was  fat  or 
thin,  or  tall  or  short.  We  ain't  got 
nothin'  ter  go  by." 

Ben    smiled    faintly.     "  What 's    the 


174        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

use  of  going  ?  We  could  n't  afford  to 
hire  a  detective ;  it  would  cost  more 
than  the  clean-up  amounted  to.  Be- 
sides, the  fellow 's  got  away  by  this 


time." 


"You  'pear  to  take  it  mighty  easy 
like.  Might  have  killed  you.  I  'd 
like  ter  give  him  a  good  drubbing  on 
my  own  account,"  said  Mundon. 

Hodges  cast  a  lowering  look  from 
one  to  the  other.  He  was  too  stub- 
born to  relinquish  at  once  his  theory 
that  Mundon  was  guilty ;  yet  the  man's 
bearing  and  conversation  were  puzzling. 

"He's  the  boldest  chap  that  ever 
lived,  and  Ben's  the  greatest  fool,  or 
else  I  'm  on  the  wrong  tack,"  he  re- 
flected. "  I  b'lieve  I  '11  find  out  whether 
he  turned  up  at  his  hotel  at  three  o'clock 
in  the  morning  or  not." 

As  soon  as  he  heard  the  front  door 
close  upon  Mundon,  Ben  called  out  to 
little  Jim,  who  hung  around  the  bed  in 
mute  sympathy,  "Where's  Syd?  " 


IN   THE   SICKROOM  175 

"  He  did  n't  sleep  at  home  last  night/' 
the  boy  replied. 

Mr.  Hodges  looked  surprised,  and 
there  was  an  awkward  pause,  during 
which  Ben  thought  best  to  close  his 
eyes  again. 

"He  said  last  night  that  he  was  goin' 
to  stay  all  night  with  Tom  Miles, 
'cause  they  was  goin'  clammin'  early  this 
mornm',"  Jim  added. 

"Then,  why  did  n't  you  say  so  in  the 
first  place  ?"  his  father  said,  as  he  strode 
from  the  room. 

Ben's  pale  cheeks  had  grown  quite 
pink. 

"Jim,"  he  said  in  a  low  voice,  "will 
you  do  something  for  me !" 

"  Sure  !  " 

"  Well,  I  wish  you  'd  find  out  where 
Syd  is  and  tell  him  I  want  to  see  him. 
You  can  tell  him  how  I  got  hurt,  and 
that  nobody  knows  who  did  it.  Tell 
him  that  the  doctor  says  I  '11  be  all  right 
in  a  few  days." 


1 76        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

f<  Is  there  anything  else  you  'd  like, 
Ben  ?  'Cause  if  there  is,  I  've  got  a 
dollar  and  fifty-five  cents  what  I  'm 
a-savin'  up  to  buy  a  'safety'  with,  and 
I  'd  jest  as  soon  take  some  of  it  as 


not." 


"No,  thank  you.  Just  do  that  one 
favor  for  me,  and  it 's  all  I  '11  ask." 

Jim  departed,  and  in  an  hour  or  so 
reported  that  Sydney  could  not  be  found. 
Tom  Miles  had  expected  to  dig  for 
clams,  but  as  Sydney  had  failed  to  put 
in  an  appearance  he  had  given  it  up. 
Inquiry  at  the  store  where  Sydney  was 
employed  developed  the  fact  that  he 
had  not  been  seen  there  since  the  even- 
ing before. 

Shortly  afterwards  Beth  and  little  Sue 
paid  Ben  a  visit.  By  a  few  adroit  ques- 
tions Ben  saw  that  they  had  no  suspi- 
cion of  Syd's  part  in  the  night's  work. 

"  If  you  'd  only  made  the  thief  give 
up  the  gold  it  would  have  been  some 
satisfaction,"  Beth  said. 


IN   THE   SICKROOM  177 

"Yes,  that 's  so.  But  this  is  only  a 
scratch,  anyway. " 

"You  '11  have  to  be  careful,  the  doc- 
tor says." 

"  I  mean  to  be ;  but  it  frets  me  so  to 
stay  in  bed  that  it  does  more  harm  than 
good.  I  want  to  see  Mr.  Hale." 

"Yes ;  and  you  want  to  find  the  rob- 
ber." 

"Of  course,  if  I  can,"  Ben  wearily 
agreed.  "  But  I  sha'n't  waste  much 
time  on  him." 

Ben  had  plenty  of  time  for  reflec- 
tion during  his  enforced  stay  in  bed. 
Ever  since  the  day  of  the  injunction, 
when  Mundon  had  mentioned  the  name 
of  the  owner  of  the  land,  he  had  been 
haunted  by  the  thought  that  he  had 
known  or  heard  something  of  the  man 
before,  but  it  was  not  until  the  second 
day  after  the  robbery  that  it  suddenly 
flashed  upon  him  that  he  was  the  man 
of  whom  the  mysterious  Chinaman 
had  spoken. 


1 78        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  Fish  !"  he  exclaimed,  and  little  Jim, 
who  was  hovering  about  his  bed,  was  for 
getting  him  some  at  once. 

"  I  was  only  thinking  aloud,"  Ben  ex- 
plained. "I  don't  want  any  fish,"  and 
added  with  a  grim  smile,  "  I  've  had 
enough  of  that  article  already."  At 
which  Jim  looked  thoroughly  puzzled. 

"What  possible  connection  could 
there  have  been  between  a  band  of 
Chinese  smugglers  and  Mr.  Fish,  the 
wealthy  miser?"  Ben  asked  himself. 
"He  was  there  on  that  first  day,  so 
Mundon  said,  and  the  Chinaman  may 
have  overheard  something  of  his  plans. 
I  '11  fight  him  —  see  if  I  don't,  when  I 
get  out  of  this  !" 

His  impatience  to  be  able  to  investi- 
gate the  affair  increased  hourly.  He 
must  see  the  Chinese  and  find  out  what 
he  had  meant  by  his  strange  warning. 

As  he  had  not  told  Mundon  about 
the  Chinaman's  offer,  he  decided  not 
to  tell  him  of  his  resolve  to  visit  him. 


IN   THE   SICKROOM  179 

Aside  from  his  former  suspicions,  a 
love  of  adventure  made  him  anxious  to 
undertake  the  thing  alone. 

He  was  forced  to  wait  a  week  before 
he  was  well  enough  to  leave  the  house. 
During  this  time  Sydney  had  not  been 
heard  from.  His  mother  would  not 
permit  a  public  announcement  to  be 
made  of  his  disappearance,  claiming 
that  it  was  probable  that  he  had  met  a 
cousin  from  San  Jose  and  had  gone  to 
that  city  for  a  visit.  Whether  she  had 
any  suspicion  of  the  truth  or  not,  Ben 
could  not  determine ;  but  she  put  an 
end  to  all  open  speculation  on  the  part 
of  the  family  as  to  the  whereabouts  of 
the  absent  one,  by  emphatically  declar- 
ing, "  Syd  's  old  enough  to  take  care  of 
himself.  He 's  my  flesh  and  blood, 
and  so  long  as  1  don't  fret  about  him 
I  don't  see  as  any  one  else  needs  to/' 


i8o        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    OPIUM    RAID 

A  LTHOUGH  Ben  had  been  eager 
V\  to  go  in  search  of  his  strange 
informer,  yet  when  he  set  forth  he 
almost  regretted  not  having  brought  a 
companion.  He  knew  that  the  address 
given  must  be  in  the  heart  of  the  Chi- 
nese quarter,  and,  like  most  San  Fran- 
cisco boys,  he  knew  something  of  that 
dangerous  locality.  He  had  heard  of 
the  mysterious  murders  which  at  times 
were  of  almost  daily  occurrence;  of 
the  sick  thrust  into  the  street  to  die; 
and  of  the  opium  dens,  where  white 
people  were  hidden.  He  had  heard, 
too,  of  the  fierce  dogs  which  were 
kept  on  the  roofs  of  the  houses;  of 
secret  passages  leading  from  house  to 
house,  until  the  place  was  a  vast 
honeycomb  of  runways,  through  which 


THE   OPIUM    RAID  181 

the  Chinese  slipped  like  rats  in  their 
holes. 

Chinatown  may  present  a  peaceful 
appearance  in  the  daytime,  but  at  night, 
with  the  weird  effects  caused  by  the 
many-colored  lanterns,  the  inky  recesses 
of  the  doorways,  the  depths  of  under- 
ground burrows  trod  by  velvet-footed 
shadows,  it  is  transformed  into  a  region 
to  strike  terror  to  the  bravest. 

Perhaps  a  thought  of  these  dangers 
induced  Ben  to  choose  broad  daylight 
for  his  quest.  He  found  the  address 
easily  enough  —  a  house  of  several 
stories  that  in  some  earlier  period  of 
the  city  had  been  an  imposing  resi- 
dence, but  was  now  used  by  the  Chinese 
for  a  fruit-canning  factory.  The  casing 
of  the  door  was  plastered  with  gaudy 
bills  covered  with  Chinese  characters, 
and  through  the  broken  window-panes 
could  be  seen  countless  piles  of  cans. 

A  short  flight  of  steps  led  downward 
from  the  sidewalk  to  a  basement  en- 


1 82        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

trance,  and  as  Ben  approached  he  saw  a 
Chinese  leaning  against  the  iron  balus- 
trade. He  recognized  Ng  Quong,  with 
a  feeling  of  relief  that  he  should  not  be 
obliged  to  enter  the  house. 

In  this  he  was  mistaken,  for  the  man 
would  not  talk  upon  the  public  street, 
where  the  very  gutters  might  have  ears. 

He  conducted  Ben  through  several 
corridors  and  stairways  to  an  upper 
room  where  a  number  of  Chinese  were 
seated  at  a  repast  of  rice  and  tea.  Ben 
did  not  like  to  broach  the  object  of  his 
visit  before  such  an  audience,  and  waited 
until  the  meal  was  finished  and  the 
others  had  departed. 

"You  wish  to  rent  part  of  your 
house?"  his  host  blandly  inquired. 

"  I  have  n't  any  house  to  rent  at 
present,"  Ben  replied.  "  I  want  to 
find  out  what  you  mean  when  you  say 
Mr.  Fish  make  me  plenty  trouble  — 
you  sabe?"  The  language  used  by  the 
man  was  a  rebuke. 


Photo  by  Arnold  Genthe. 

'As  Ben  approached  he  saw  Ng  Quong 
leaning    against    the    iron    balustrade.'1'1 


THE   OPIUM    RAID  183 

"Ah,  that  man  make  you  trouble 
already?" 

"  Yes,  trouble  enough.  Come,  tell 
me  what  you  know  about  him?" 

"  For  what  object  should  I  tell  you  ? 
Perhaps,  it  might  make  me  trouble." 

"  You  say  when  I  have  trouble  come 
and  see  you.  I  have  trouble, —  I  come. 
You  tell  me  what  you  know, —  I  give 
you  ten  dollars." 

The  Chinese  regarded  him  with  a 
sphinx-like  stare.  "O,  ten  dollars  is 
not  much  money  to  me,"  he  remarked, 
indifferently.  "  I  like  to  rent  from  you ; 
that 's  all.  On  that  day  I  speak  to  you 
I  go  with  the  crowd  to  see  what  you 
do.  I  hear  Mr.  Fish  talk  to  old  man." 

"  Old  man  with  a  big  gray  hat  and  a 
cane?"  Ben  eagerly  inquired. 

"  Yes.  I  suppose  those  men  think  I 
not  understand  much  English,  for  they 
not  pay  much  attention  to  me.  Mr. 
Fish  say  to  old  man  that  it  too  bad  to 
lose  so  much  money.  They  mean  your 


1 84        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

gold  —  they  watch  it.  Then  they  talk 
about  a  lease;  and  old  man  say  it  not 
good  any  more.  Mr.  Fish  say  he  will 
fix  book  at  City  Hall,  then  stop  you 
and  work  for  gold  himself.  He  say  he 
will  give  the  old  man  some." 

"  I  can't  understand/*  said  Ben, 
"why,  if  the  lease  has  expired,  he 
should  need  to  fix  the  record?  Did  he 
say  anything  else?" 

"No;  that's  all  I  hear." 

"  Well,  that 's  helped  me  some,  per- 
haps. Here  's  your  ten  dollars." 

Ben  paid  him  the  money  with  some 
regret.  It  seemed  a  good  deal  for  the 
information;  still  it  might  be  a  clue  to 
ravel  the  tangle. 

Suddenly  there  was  a  loud  knock  at 
the  door,  followed  by  a  noisy  pounding. 
Ben  had  not  noticed  that  the  door  had 
been  locked  after  him,  and  he  turned  to 
Ng  Quong  in  surprise. 

The  Chinese  did  not  respond  to  the 
summons,  but  hurried  with  an  ashen 


THE   OPIUM    RAID  185 

face  through  the  inner  door,  which  he 
closed  and  locked  behind  him.  Ben 
heard  some  heavy  bolts  shot  into  place 
and  realized  that  he  was  in  a  very  un- 
pleasant position. 

The  pounding  increased,  and  he  saw 
that  the  door  could  not  withstand  the 
assault  much  longer.  Alone  in  a  locked 
room,  into  which  the  police  were  forcing 
an  entrance!  Suddenly,  it  flashed  into 
his  head  that  his  visit  to  the  house 
might  have  been  noticed;  that  his  con- 
nection with  the  opium  found  at  the 
Works  might  have  strengthened  the 
suspicions  of  the  police  and  caused  the 
raid.  If  this  were  the  case,  he  knew  it 
was  better  for  him  to  have  remained 
where  he  was  than  to  have  followed  the 
Chinaman,  even  if  he  had  been  given 
the  opportunity.  In  a  few  moments 
the  door  gave  way  with  a  crash  and  two 
policemen  and  several  Customs  officials 
burst  into  the  room.  Ben  recognized 
one  of  the  men  who  had  been  stationed 
to  watch  the  Works. 


1 86        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"O,  it's  you,  is  it?"  the  man  tri- 
umphantly exclaimed.  "  They  thought 
you  were  too  innocent-looking  to  be  in 
with  the  gang;  but  I  knew  better  all 
the  time!  We  Ve  caught  you  now." 

"  Caught  me !  "  Ben  indignantly  re- 
peated. "At  what,  I'd  like  to  know! 
I  came  here  to  get  some  information 
from  the  proprietor  of  this  fruit-canning 
factory." 

"Information!  Fruit  factory!"  the 
man  sneered.  "That's  a  likely  story! 
This  place  has  been  under  suspicion  for 
some  time  as  being  one  of  the  biggest 
opium-dens  and  smuggler's  storehouses 
in  town." 

During  this  conversation  the  other 
men  had  turned  everything  in  the  room 
topsy-turvy.  They  found  nothing  to 
reward  their  search  in  the  front  room, 
and  turned  their  attention  to  the  door 
which  led  to  the  inner  room.  It  took 
some  little  time  to  demolish  this,  and 
when  at  length  they  gained  entrance  not 


THE   OPIUM    RAID  187 

a  Chinese  was  to  be  found.  One  inmate 
they  dragged  forth  from  one  of  the 
rooms;  but  as  there  was  no  evidence 
against  him,  no  charge  could  be  pre- 
ferred. 

Ben  took  him  by  the  arm.  "  Come 
home,  Syd,"  he  said.  « It 's  all  right,— 
I  have  n't  told  a  soul." 

They  pushed  their  way  through  the 
curious  crowd  which  had  invaded  the 
house.  When  they  were  quite  away 
from  the  neighborhood,  Sydney  broke 
down. 

"  You  're  mighty  good  to  me,  Ben, — 
I  don't  deserve  it ! " 

"It's  nothing  at  all,"  Ben  replied. 
"  Is  n't  your  good  name  worth  a  little 
forbearance  from  one  who  's  known  you 
all  your  life?  How'd  you  come  to  be 
in  that  place?"  he  sharply  questioned. 

"  I  did  n't  know  where  else  to  hide. 
I  was  afraid  I  'd  killed  you  and  I  got  Ng 
Quong  to  let  me  stay  there  and  make 
out  some  bills  and  accounts  for  him." 


1 88        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

"  Then,  you  Ve  earned  your  keep — 
honestly? " 

Syd  looked  him  squarely  in  the  face. 
"  Yes,"  he  said. 

Ben  gave  a  sigh  of  relief.  "It  might 
have  made  a  fuss,"  he  remarked. 

"  Why, —  did  they  try  to  find  me?" 

"No;  because  your  mother  said  she 
felt  sure  you  had  gone  to  San  Jose." 

"To  San  Jose?"  Syd  repeated  in 
surprise.  After  a  pause  he  added, 
"  Mothers  are  queer — sometimes." 

Ben  did  not  reply,  for  he  knew  that 
Syd  thought  that  his  mother  suspected 
the  truth. 

"  I  meant  to  venture  out  to-night,  to 
try  to  find  out  how  you  were  and  give 
you  your  gold,"  Syd  continued.  "Here 
it  is."  He  held  out  the  vial.  "  I  hope 
I  '11  never  pass  such  a  week  of  torture 
again ! " 

"It  has  been  a  mean  experience  for 
us  both,"  Ben  replied  as  he  took  the 
vial,  "but  maybe  it's  done  us  both 


THE   OPIUM    RAID  189 

good.  I  '11  keep  a  nugget  or  a  lump 
out  of  this,"  he  held  up  the  vial  con- 
taining the  amalgam,  "  for  the  scarf-pin 
I  promised  you  once." 

"No,  thank  you,  Ben;  I'd  rather 
not  take  it,"  Syd  replied. 

"  Just  as  you  say,"  Ben  put  out  his 
hand,  for  they  had  reached  the  foot  of 
the  hill.  Syd  took  the  proffered  hand 
with  such  a  hearty  grasp  that  Ben  felt 
that  the  experience  had  made  them  bet- 
ter friends  than  they  had  ever  been. 

"  That's  over,  I  'm  thankful  to  say," 
said  Ben  to  himself,  as  he  rapidly  walked 
down  the  street.  "And  now  for  Mr. 
Hale." 


190        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 
CHAPTER   XIV 

A    CRIME    DISCOVERED 

MR.  HALE  was  in  his  office,  when 
Ben  reached  there ;  but  the  latter 
concluded  that  he  would  hear  the  result 
of  the  lawyer's  investigation  first,  reserv- 
ing his  bit  of  information  until  after- 
wards. 

"Well,  my  boy,"  said  Mr.  Hale, 
whirling  around  in  his  chair, "  I  'm  sorry 
not  to  have  better  news  for  you."  A 
kind  light  shone  in  his  eyes.  "  We  Ve 
got  a  hard  old  customer  to  deal  with, 
I  'm  afraid.  I  Ve  had  the  records 
searched  and  the  entries  of  the  lease 
were  found  to  have  been  duly  and  prop- 
erly made."  He  tilted  back  in  his  re- 
volving chair  and  put  the  tips  of  his 
fingers  together.  "I  don't  see  what 
we  're  going  to  do  about  it.  We  Ve 
run  up  against  a  stone  wall,  without, 


A  CRIME  DISCOVERED  191 

apparently,  a  cranny  in  it.  I  say  ap- 
parently, because  one  never  knows  what 
developments  may  turn  up.  It 's  a  case 
of  manifest  injustice,  but  such  cases  are 
of  daily  occurrence." 

"Something  has  turned  up,"  Ben 
said,  when  Mr.  Hale  had  finished. 

"Ah,  so  you  Ve  got  some  news.  Let 's 
have  it." 

Ben  related  his  conversation  with  the 
Chinese. 

Mr.  Hale  was  astonished.  "I  can 
scarcely  believe  that  that  old  miser  would 
meddle  with  the  records,"  he  exclaimed. 
"It  looks  very  like  it.  Yes  —  if  what 
Ng  Quong  says  is  true,  Fish  is  a  grasp- 
ing old  shark;  but — what  object  could 
he  have  ?  "  he  mused. 

"  I  '11  tell  you  !  "  exclaimed  Ben. 
"The  lease  is  just  as  he  says  it  is.  But 
there  must  have  been  some  mistake  in 
placing  the  dates  on  the  record,  and 
that  mistake  was  in  our  favor." 

"It  may  be  so.     And  the  old  fellow 


1 92        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

was  so  angered  in  being  baffled  after 
he  'd  made  sure  that  the  law  was  on  his 
side, —  he  was  so  angered  that  he  went 
to  the  length  of  changing  the  figures." 

"That  sounds  like  the  truth,  Mr. 
Hale." 

"  I  think  you  Ve  struck  it,  Ben  ;  but 
it 's  such  an  amazing  thing  that  it  seems 
incredible.  He 's  shrewd,  but  he 's 
overreached  this  time.  Yes.  For  a 
man  of  his  means  to  tamper  with  the 
records  for  the  sake  of  the  money  you 
expect  to  make !  To  what  length  will 
not  money-grasping  take  a  man  !  " 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  about 
it,  Mr.  Hale?"  Ben  could  not  resist 
asking  the  question. 

"I'm  going  to  have  a  microscopic 
examination  made  of  the  records,  and  if 
what  we  think  is  so,  he  shall  pay  dear- 
ly"—  he  brought  his  fist  down  on  the 
desk  in  front  of  him  — "  for  his  bad 
work.  I  Ve  got  several  old  scores  to 
his  account  that  I  'd  like  to  settle." 


A  CRIME  DISCOVERED  193 

"How  long  will  it  take?" 

"  To  make  the  examination  ?  About 
five  minutes." 

"  What  a  weapon  it  will  be  ! " 

"  Exactly.  But  you  must  cultivate 
patience  when  you  have  anything  to  do 
with  the  law." 

"  Do  you  think  he 's  alone  in  the 
matter?  I  mean  do  you  think  he  did 
it  himself? " 

"  No.  Undoubtedly  he  hired  some 
one  to  do  it.  We  must  find  his  tool." 
Mr.  Hale  was  as  eager  as  a  sportsman 
when  he  has  caught  sight  of  his  game. 
"  We  can  get  the  Grand  Jury  after 
him  —  if  it 's  true,"  he  gleefully  added. 

Ben  rose. 

"  Then  there  is  nothing  to  do  at 
present  but  —  " 

"  Wait,"  supplied  Mr.  Hale,  smiling. 
"  Come  in  to-morrow  at  this  time.  I 
may  have  some  news." 

Ben  resolved  not  to  tell  Mundon  of 
the  new  developments  in  the  case  until 


i94        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

he  knew  the  result  of  Mr.  Hale's  in- 
vestigation. It  was  hard  work  keeping 
the  new  hope  to  himself.  Mundon  was 
so  depressed  that  Ben  longed  to  brighten 
him  with  the  story  of  the  day's  events. 

On  the  afternoon  of  the  following 
day  Ben  found  himself  impatiently 
awaiting  Mr.  Hale's  return  from  court. 

When  he  caught  sight  of  the  latter's 
beaming  face  he  knew  that  the  result 
was  favorable. 

"  It 's  all  right,  my  boy,"  the  lawyer 
exclaimed.  "It's  just  as  we  thought. 
I  '11  have  you  mining  again,  before 
you  're  many  days  older." 

"  The  dates  had  been  changed  ? " 
Ben  's  voice  was  a  little  uncertain. 

"Yes  —  and  a  bad,  bungling  job 
they  made  of  it,  too.  I  'm  surprised 
my  clerk  did  n't  notice  it  in  the  first 
place.  But,  of  course,  he  was  n't  look- 
ing for  such  sharp  work  as  that.  By 
the  way,  I  told  a  reporter  on  the  Gazette 
—  you  know  they  keep  a  man  around 


A  CRIME  DISCOVERED          195 

the  City  Hall  on  the  lookout  for  news 
— who  came  to  see  what  my  expert  was 
about." 

"  Then  it  '11  be  in  the  papers." 

"  Well,  I  told  him  all  he  wanted  to 
know.  You  're  not  afraid  of  the  papers, 
are  you?" 

"  No, —  I  Ve  done  nothing  that  I  'm 
ashamed  of." 

"  Exactly.  To-morrow  morning  Mr. 
Fish's  large  circle  of  enemies  will  read 
with  pleasure  that  he  has  been  caught 
at  last." 

"  There  's  another  reason  why  I  'm 
glad  the  whole  story 's  going  into  print." 

"About  that  opium  business?" 

"  Yes.  I  think  it  will  clear  me  from 
any  suspicion  of  being  connected  with 
the  ring.  I  'd  like  the  real  reason  to 
be  known  for  my  being  in  Ng  Quong's 
house." 

"Well,  'twill  be  now." 

Ben  went  straight  from  the  lawyer's 
office  to  Mundon.  The  latter  was  look- 


196        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

ing  more  disconsolate  than  ever.  Even 
the  mule  seemed  to  have  caught  his 
state  of  abject  misery. 

"  I  Ve  just  ben  thinkin'  how  I  could 
get  out  of  this  old  town,"  Mundon 
said.  "If  I  could  manage  to  get  to 
Cripple  Creek,  I  'd  be  able  to  get  on 
my  feet  again." 

Ben  did  not  reply,  and  Mundon 
glanced  at  his  face. 

"Why,  Ben,  you  look  as  you'd 
heard  some  good  news." 

"  So  I  have,  partner,  mighty  good 
news.  Wo— o— w!"  He  flung  his  cap 
above  their  heads.  "We're  going  to 
beat  that  muckery  pair,  Fish  and  Madge, 
sure  's  you  're  born  ! " 

"  Either  you  Ve  gone  plumb  crazy, 
Ben,  or  else —  '  Tell  me  'bout  it,  boy! 
How'd  you  down  'em?" 

During  the  recital  of  the  story,  Mun- 
don gave  Ben  a  keen  glance  when  he 
came  to  the  part  relating  to  Ng  Quong. 

It  was  an  awkward  moment  for  both; 


A  CRIME  DISCOVERED  197 

and    Ben   regretted    his    silence  at  the 
time  the  incident  occurred. 

"You  forgot  to  mention  the  China- 
man's visit  at  the  time/'  Mundon  re- 
marked. "  But  time  '11  tell,  Ben,  and  I 
ain't  never  ben  afraid  of  time." 


On  the  day  following  the  investiga- 
tion, the  Gazette  published  the  story  of 
the  "Smelting  Works  Claim." 

Ben  read  the  account  aloud  to  Mun- 
don, sitting  on  the  fence  outside  the 
Works.  Of  course,  in  the  tale,  Ben 
was  made  a  hero  and  Mr.  Fish  a  double- 
dyed  villain. 

"  They  have  n't  got  him  black  enough 
to  suit  me,"  said  Mundon,  fiercely  whit- 
tling the  stick  he  held.  "  I  hope  they  '11 
paint  him  blacker  and  blacker  every  day 
for  a  year." 

There  were  two  items  of  news  in  the 
article,  however,  that  Ben  had  not  fore- 
seen,—  the  simultaneous  disappearance 


198        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

of  Mr.  Fish  and  one  of  the  clerks  in 
the  City  Hall. 

"  Now  that  there  's  no  one  here  to 
stop  us,  I  'd  like  to  smash  open  those 
gates  and  finish  our  work." 

Mundon  shook  his  fist  at  the  gates, 
which  glowered  back  at  him.  "  I  Ve 
ben  turnin'  over  in  my  mind  all  that 
there  slag  that's  under  the  old  wharf. 
I  b'lieve  there 's  heaps  of  copper  and 
lead  buried  there." 

"  No  wonder  you  Ve  been  depressed 
— with  all  that  on  your  mind,"  com- 
mented Ben.  "  I  'm  to  know  to-day 
just  how  long  it  will  be  before  the  in- 
junction can  be  raised.  Mr.  Hale  says 
this  hard-luck  story  of  ours  will  hurry 
things — it's  going  to  create  sympathy 
for  our  case." 

"  Well,  it  oughter.  Say,  Ben,  just 
let  me  drop  through  that  hole  in  the 
roof  and  do  a  little  work  on  the  quiet?" 
Ben  shook  his  head.  "'T  won't  do  no 
harm.  You  kin  set  here  and  watch." 


A  CRIME  DISCOVERED  199 

"  No,  Mundon,  not  for  a  million !" 

"  How  easy  it  is  to  talk  about  refus- 
in'  a  million  —  when  you're  young!" 

"  This  thing 's  going  to  be  square  on 
my  part.  I  Ve  made  up  my  mind  to 
stick  to  that,"  Ben  answered.  "Hello! 
That  boy  looks  like  Mr.  Hale's  office 
boy." 

He  sprang  down  from  the  fence  and 
tore  open  the  envelope  which  the  boy 
gave  him. 

"Hurrah!  Mundon — we've  won!" 
Ben  cried.  "  It 's  ours,  and  you  can 
smash  those  gates  as  soon  as  you 
please ! " 

Mundon  slid  down  from  his  perch 
and,  seizing  a  piece  of  scantling,  struck 
the  old  gates  a  mighty  blow  that  started 
the  nails  from  the  wood. 

"  There ! "  he  said.  "  That  does  me 
good !  I  Ve  wanted  to  smash  'em  ever 
since  those  smarties  came  and  nailed 
'em  up." 


200        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

CHAPTER    XV 

BEN    CHOOSES    A    PROFESSION 

WITHIN  the  Works  they  found 
everything,  with  the  exception  of 
the  amalgam  which  Syd  had  taken,  ex- 
actly as  they  had  left  it.  Mundon  was 
particularly  pleased  to  find  the  "jigger  " 
undisturbed. 

"  Here  's  the  slag  I  mean,  Ben.  I  Ve 
dreamt  about  that  there  identical  lump 
fur  three  nights  runninV  Mundon 
pointed  to  the  rugged  top  of  a  lava- 
like  bowlder,  which  reared  itself  from  a 
corner  of  the  earthen  floor. 

"  I  guess  you  're  right  about  the  met- 
als there  are  in  it,"  said  Ben ;  "  but  it 
might  be  an  aerolite  for  all  I  know." 

"  What 's  that  ?     Say  it  again." 

"An  aerolite?  It's  the  lump  of 
metal  they  find  when  a  meteor  falls  and 
it 's  unlike  anything  found  on  this 
earth." 


BEN  CHOOSES  A  PROFESSION    201 

"  O,  a  fallin'  star.  I  knew  a  man 
who  wrote  some  poetry  about  one  that 
fell  in  Australia.  He  called  it  *  star- 
dust,'  but  I  s'pose  a  hard-as-naiis  pro- 
fessor would  call  it — by  the  name  that 
you  do."  While  speaking,  Mundon 
was  surveying  the  ground. 

"  I  Ve  got  a  scheme,  Ben,  to  grade 
all  this  stuff  'cordin'  to  its  value." 

"How  do  mean?" 

"Why  we  Ve  had  'sperience  enough 
to  see  that  'd  be  the  best  way  to  econo- 
mize our  time  and  labor.  We  '11  assay 
it  and  grade  it  till  we  know  'bout  where 
we  stand." 

"It  '11  be  an  awful  lot  of  work  to 
do  it." 

"  Yes,  it  '11  be  tejus,  but  it  '11  pay  bet- 
ter in  the  end.  We  '11 — if  you  say  so, 
Ben,  'course  it 's  your  own  business ; 
but  I  'm  jest  tellin'  you  how  I  'd  do  if 
't  were  mine — we  '11  sep'rate  the  stuff 
'cordin'  to  size  first,  and  then  'cordin' 
to  value." 


202        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"  It 's  a  good  plan.  Don't  defer  to 
me  any  more  —  you  idiot!  It  makes 
me  feel  so  mean  when  you  do  it.  You 
know  as  well  as  I  do  that  I  don't  know 
the  first  thing  about  this  business." 

"  You  're  the  boss,  Ben,"  Mundon 
laconically  replied. 

"  I  don't  doubt  that  the  slag  and 
muck  and  all  the  rest  of  it  are  valu- 
able," said  Ben  ;  "  but  the  chimney  — 
our  golden  chimney — is  the  thing  we  're 
sure  of  now.  Maybe  the  day's  clean- 
up '11  be  more,  or  maybe  it  '11  be  less, 
but  we  know  it  '11  be  gold  !  " 

"You're  right — we've  tested  that 
and  we  're  sure  of  it.  But  we  must  n't 
despise  the  rest,  on  that  account.  Now, 
here  's  where  the  roaster  stood — it  must 
hev  stood  here,  'cause  it  could  n't  hev 
stood  any  place  else.  Well,  I  'm  goin' 
to  sink  a  shaft  here."  Mundon  stooped 
as  he  spoke,  and  with  his  pocket-knife 
he  dug  a  small  hole,  from  which  he  un- 
earthed several  small  lumps  of  metal. 


BEN  CHOOSES  A  PROFESSION    203 

"Just  as  I  thought,"  he  said  as  he 
weighed  them  in  his  hand, — "lead  ore 
that  '11  assay  heavy  in  silver." 

"  Then,  there  are  those  dumps, — 
made  when  the  furnaces  were  put  in, 
you  thought.  We  have  n't  touched 
those  yet." 

"You  mean  outside,  where  the  old 
fence  stood  ?  " 

"Yes.  Why,  just  look  here."  Ben 
drew  Mundon  outside  the  gates  to 
where  some  mounds  rose  from  the 
beach.  "It's  my  opinion  that  this 
board  that 's  nailed  on  the  fence  here, 
opposite  these  heaps,  was  put  here  to 
mark  them." 

"  They  're  heaps  of  waste,  most  likely. 
Somethin'  's  ben  scratched  into  the 
wood.  Let 's  see  what  it  is." 

They  carefully  examined  the  board, 
and  Ben  deciphered  the  inscription, 
"  Waste  Bullion:' 

"Just  think!"  he  cried,  "that  old 
Madge  has  let  this  pile  of  stuff  that 's 


204        THE   GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

one  third  solid  silver,  maybe,  stay  here 
all  these  years  !  And  Mr.  Fish,  close 
as  he  is,  too,"  he  added.  "  It 's  awfully 
funny ! " 

"It  ain't  funny  that  Fish  did  n't  do 
nothin'  with  it,  'cause  he  's  the  kind  that 
just  collects  rents  and  forecloses  mort- 
gages. He  would  n't  put  up  a  cent 
in  any  venture  like  this ;  he  'd  call  it 
oncertain.  But  old  Madge  is  a  born 
miner.  Well,  it  is  funny.  He  '11  be 
wild." 

"  There  used  to  be  a  shed  inside  the 
old  fence,  in  a  sort  of  an  outside  yard," 
Ben  remarked,  "  but  they  both  fell 
down  years  ago." 

"That  so?"  Mundon  replied,  as  he 
stooped  and  carefully  examined  the 
ground.  "  Yes,  here  's  the  posts  the 
shed  rested  on.  We  '11  excavate  five  or 
six  feet  deep  here,  on  the  site  of  the  old 
shed.  It 's  bound  to  pay  us  fur  our 
trouble." 


BEN  CHOOSES  A  PROFESSION    205 

"  After  it 's  been  all  these  years  on 
the  open  beach  ?  " 

"What's  that  got  to  do  with  it? 
Nobody  's  ever  mined  here.  It  stands 
to  reason  that  they  'd  hev  stored  more 
val'able  stuff  in  the  shed  than  they 
would  in  the  open.  And  there  's  the 
signboard,  a-tellin'  us  that  these  dumps 
are  waste  bullion." 

During  the  weeks  that  followed  their 
return  to  their  claim  the  partners  worked 
industriously.  They  sifted  the  result 
of  their  labors  in  three  dumps,  graded 
according  to  value.  The  first  was  coarse 
base  bullion,  which  assayed  at  two  hun- 
dred dollars  a  ton.  One  piece,  the 
largest,  weighed  about  twenty  pounds  ; 
the  smallest  pieces  were  the  size  of 
peas.  The  second  pile  consisted  of  fine 
bullion,  its  component  particles  ranging 
in  size  from  a  pea  to  a  pinhead.  This 
assayed  at  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars 
a  ton.  A  third  pile  averaged  from 


zo6        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

seventy-five  dollars  to  one  hundred 
dollars  a  ton.  The  total  product  of 
this,  representing  a  week's  work,  they 
estimated  to  be  about  seventeen  hun- 
dred dollars. 

The  site  of  the  old  shed  was  exca- 
vated, and  water  was  brought  to  the 
spot  in  a  flume ;  for  Mundon  thought 
best  to  wash  the  ground  in  a  rocker 
before  putting  it  through  the  "jigger." 

The  result  amply  repaid  them  for 
their  trouble. 

"  This  beats  me !  Rockin'  on  the 
beach  of  San  Francisco  and  makin'  our 
two  and  three  hundred  dollars  a  day," 
said  Mundon,  one  day  as  they  were 
digging  several  feet  below  the  surface. 

"It  beats  anything  I  ever  heard 
of,"  Ben  replied ;  "  but  I  'm  willing  it 
should." 

Ben  worked  so  hard  during  the  day 
that  he  was  too  tired  when  night  came 
to  do  anything  but  go  to  bed  as  quickly 
as  possible. 


BEN  CHOOSES  A  PROFESSION    207 

One  Sunday  afternoon  he  paid  a  visit 
to  Beth.  He  had  not  seen  her  for 
some  time,  and  was  anxious  to  know 
what  progress  she  was  making  at  school. 
She  saw  him  coming  and  came  running 
to  meet  him. 

"Will  you  walk  out  to  the  Point, 
Ben?" 

"Yes.  We  don't  do  any  work  on 
Sunday." 

"Well,  it's  come  true,  Beth,"  he 
said  when  they  were  well  away  from 
the  house ;  "  most  of  it  has,  at  any  rate." 

"  O,  I  'm  so  glad  ! " 

"  We  're  far  enough  along  now  to 
form  a  pretty  correct  figure  of  what 
there  is  in  sight,  and  we  've  got  four 
weeks  more  to  work  in."  Bancroft 

"  How  much  will  you  make  ? " 

"  Well,  how  much  do  you  guess  ? " 

"  O,  I  don't  know,"  the  girl  earnestly 
replied.  "  You  say  it 's  come  true,  and 
you  must  mean  your  fortune  we  used 
to  talk  about ;  so  I  guess  you  're  not 


208        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

disappointed.  Everybody  's  so  curious 
to  know  what  you  're  making." 

"They  can  keep  on  being  curious.  I 
had  enough  of  people's  curiosity  be- 
fore," he  grimly  added.  "The  work 
on  the  beach  we  have  to  do  outside,  but 
we  don't  allow  a  soul  inside  the  gates 
now." 

"  I  know  you  don't ;  and  they  say  the 
reason  is  that  you  're  not  cleaning  up 
anything  and  don't  want  any  one  to 
know  it." 

Ben  gave  a  dry  laugh.  "  Or  else  we 
don't  want  any  one  to  know  how  much 
we  're  making.  Why  would  n't  it  work 
that  way  ? " 

"It  would,"  said  Beth.  "Do  tell 
me,  Ben;  I  'm  just  dying  to  know! 
How  much  will  it  be?" 

"  From  ten  to  twelve  thousand  dol- 
lars." 

"  What !    You  don't  really  mean  it  ? " 

"Indeed  I  do.  But  you  mustn't 
tell  yet  a  while." 


BEN  CHOOSES  A  PROFESSION    209 

When  they  reached  the  house  on  their 
return,  Mrs.  Hodges  awaited  them  in 
the  doorway. 

"Found  any  nuggets,  Ben?"  she 
facetiously  remarked. 

"No,"  he  laughed.  "That  yarn 
about  finding  them  in  chimneys  was  a 
fairy  tale,  I  think.  But  we  Ve  found 
the  stuff  to  make  them  out  of,  which 
answers  our  purpose  quite  as  well." 

Her  husband  looked  over  her  shoul- 
der. 

"If  the  lease  was  never  recorded,  or 
was  done  wrong,  Ben,  could  n't  Fish 
oust  you  if  he  wanted  to  ? " 

"  I  suppose  he  could,  strictly  speak- 
ing," Ben  replied.  "But,  you  see,  he 
overreached.  He  played  a  mean,  dis- 
honest trick  in  having  a  false  entry 
made  in  the  record,  and  now  he  does  n't 
dare  to  come  back  for  fear  of  being 
arrested." 

"  But  he  '11  come  back  some  time 
when  the  thing 's  blown  over." 


zio        THE    GOLDEN    CHIMNEY 

"Well,  I'll  be  through  with  the 
Works  by  that  time,"  Ben  remarked 
as  he  bade  them  good-night. 

When  the  last  day  came  it  was  with 
considerable  regret  that  the  partners 
made  preparations  to  leave  the  Works 
forever. 

"  I  don't  want  to  stay  one  day  longer 
than  the  time  I  'm  entitled  to,"  said 
Ben.  "  It  's  paid  us  well  for  our  work, 
but  I  would  n't  care  to  go  through  it 
all  again." 

"  It  has  been  sort  of  a  worrisome 
job,"  Mundon  replied.  "  Still  it 's  big 
pay.  Seven  thousand  dollars  for  a  boy 
like  you  to  make  in  three  months ! 
Besides,  there 's  worry  in  all  sorts  of 
business,  and  a  man  's  jest  got  to  make 
the  best  out  of  it,"  he  philosophically 
added.  "Do  you  know,  Ben, —  now 
that  it 's  all  over,  I  kin  tell  you, — I  know 
there  was  a  time  when  you  mistrusted 
me ;  not  exactly  mistrusted,  either,  but 


BEN  CHOOSES  A  PROFESSION    211 

you  had  the  thoughts  out  of  which 
mistrust  is  made.  O,  you  need  n't  say 
you  did  n't,"  he  exclaimed  as  Ben  made 
a  gesture  of  dissent.  "I  knew  jest  as 
well  as  if  you  'd  told  me  so  that  you 
did.  I  ain't  a-holdin'  it  up  agin  you, 
neither.  I  know  how  many  there  was 
to  put  sech  things  into  your  head  agin 
a  stranger,  like  I  was." 

"  Well,  I  did  n't  let  them  stay  there, 
Mundon.  I  trusted  you  all  through." 

They  heartily  shook  hands. 

"  I  b'lieve  you  did,  boy;  I  b'lieve  you 
did.  It 's  ben  a  tough  job,  though, 
in  places.  What  with  the  smugglin' 
business,  and  your  gettin'  cut,  and  the 
injunction,  too.  But  takin'  it  all  through, 
jest  lumpin'  it,  you  don't  regret  it, 
do  you  ?  " 

"No,"  Ben  replied.  "We got  through 
by  the  skin  of  our  teeth,  in  places," 
he  continued.  "It  was  a  chance,  though, 
that  I  did  n't  lose  every  cent  I  had  in 
the  world.  It  was  just  the  merest  acci- 


2i2        THE   GOLDEN   CHIMNEY 

dent  that  that  Chinaman  overheard 
those  two  rascals  and  put  us  on  their 
track.  Besides,  we  were  n't  dead  sure 
—  we  could  n't  be  —  that  there  was  any 
gold  in  the  old  ramshackle  Works  when 
I  bought  them.  It 's  top  much  like 
gambling  to  suit  me.  I  'm  not  saying 
a  word  against  your  going  into  what- 
ever you  want  to,  but,  for  myself,  I  'm 
going  to  choose  something  that 's  slower 
and  surer." 

"  Made  up  your  mind,  yet,  what  it  '11 
be?" 

"  Yes, —  I  'm  going  to  Berkeley, —  to 
college  —  to  fit  myself  to  be  a  mining 
engineer." 

"  That 's  the  very  best  thing  you  can 
do." 

"  I  'm  glad  that  you  approve.  You 
see,  I  Ve  got  money  enough  to  carry 
me  through ;  and  if  I  Ve  got  brains 
enough,  too,  I  'm  all  right." 

"Coin'  to  stick  to  minin' — I  see." 


BEN  CHOOSES  A  PROFESSION    213 

"  Yes,  Mundon,  but  with  this  differ- 
ence, I  'm  going  to  equip  myself  to 
mine  for  others —  I  need  n't  mine  for 
myself  unless  I  choose  to." 


"For  the  Blue  and  Gold* 

A  Talc  of  Life  at  the  University  of  California 

BY 
JOY     LlCHTENSTEIN 

izrno.      Bound  in  decorated  cloth.     Twelve  full-page 
illustrations  from  photographs. 


Price,  $1.50  net 

From  the  Louirvi//e  Couritr-Jburnal. 

"A  stirring  tale  of  life  at  the  University  of  California. 
It  is  a  real  Western  story — breezy,  independent,  and  charac- 
teristic. It  will  certainly  stand  in  the  front  rank  of  college 
and  university  fiction." 

From  the  Boston  Times. 

"  For  those  who  go  to  college,  who  used  to  go  to  college, 
or  who  want  to  know  what 's  going  on  in  college,  *  For  the 
Blue  and  Gold  '  is  a  much-needed  book.  It  is  a  tale  of  the 
University  of  California ;  a  realistic  picture  of  under-graduates 
at  work  and  play,  and  it  is  finely  illustrated.  .  .  .  The 
author  has  told  how  a  game  of  football  was  lost  and  won 
more  thrilling,  more  life-like  than  I  ever  read  before  in 
book  or  newspaper. 

From  the  Neio  Orleans  Picayune. 

"A  rattling  good  story  of  under-graduate  life,  its  work, 
and  its  play.  There  are  scores  of  healthy,  fun-loving,  sturdy 
young  Americans,  who  keep  the  interest  at  a  glow  from 
start  to  finish.0 

A.  M.  Robertson  :  San  Francisco 


"Under  the  Berkeley  Oaks 

A    COLLECTION    OF 

STORIES  BY   STUDENTS  OF  THE   UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA.    THE  FRONTISPIECE  is 

A   BEAUTIFUL   REPRODUCTION 

OF  WILLIAM  KEITH'S 

PAINTING 

"A  Memory  of  Berkeley" 
izrno.       Bound  in  blue  and  gold 


Price ',  $1.00  net 

From  the  Baltimore  Sun. 

"  The  book  is  a  credit  to  the  students  of  Berkeley,  to  its 
editors,  and  to  its  publisher." 

From  the  New  York  Sun. 

"The  somewhat  apologetic  preface  of  *  Under  the  Berke- 
ley Oaks'  explains  that  the  book  is  published  in  order  to 
start  a  fund  for  building  a  fountain  on  the  college  campus, 
which  shall  be  dedicated  to  the  benefactor  of  the  University, 
Mrs.  Phoebe  Hearst.  The  collection  needs  no  apology, 
however.  The  stories  are  as  creditable  pieces  of  compo- 
sition as  any  college  can  show. 

From  the  Boston  Times. 

'*     .  The  stories  are  all  readable,  and  some  are  of 

particular  excellence.  The  subjects  cover  a  wide  field — 
college  life,  legendary,  historical,  and  mystical — and  each 
has  something  to  recommend  it  to  readers  outside  the 
interests  of  the  University  of  California." 

A.  M.  Robertson  :  San  Francisco 


